Regimental Sergeant Major Horace Cyril "Phil" Phillips MBE MVO - Welsh Guards

Obituary – The Times 2 January 1992 - Sergeant Major Horace Cyril “Phil” Phillips MBE, MVO, Welsh Guards, former sergeant-major of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and of the Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard, died on Christmas Day aged 76. He was born on 27 March 1916.  The Duke of Kent, King Hussain of Jordan, nine foreign princes, two sultans and a sheikh were among the 6,000 cadets trained by Phil Phillips.  When he marched off the parade ground at Sandhurst for the last time, as Academy Sergeant Major the most senior sergeant-major in the army it could truly be said that he had moulded a new generation of young officers.  Phillips himself belonged to a new generation of sergeant-majors though he might not have looked it.  Well over six foot and weighing 14 stone, a former guards light-heavyweight boxing champion, he appeared every inch the traditional RSM as he towered over his charges on the square, his boots and brasses outshining their own.  He believed in the virtues of drill, if only to teach soldiers how to react to a command, and he cultivated a resonant bellow to go with it.  He argued that it was no use calling “Fire” on the battlefield if the men had to shout back “What” He was horrified on a visit to West Point to find the drill instructors using megaphones.  Underneath, however, Phillips was a gentle giant who never swore at or bullied his recruits. He thought seriously about his work and responsibilities. He read widely on politics and current affairs and advised all his cadets to do the same.  Before being posted with his regiment overseas, he would spend days studying the local traditions.  Phillips was born at Chepstow, Gwent into an army family. His father had served in both the Boer War and the First World War and although young Phil trained as a butcher on leaving school, his ambition was always to sign on with the Welsh Guards. He did so in 1934 and after his first spell of public duties in London, mounting guard at Buckingham Palace, he went with his battalion to Gibraltar.  When war broke out, it became the first unit of the British Expeditionary Force, sailing to Marseilles by battleship then travelling north by train.  Phillips was captured near Arras, however, during the Dunkirk retreat and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Poland, in Stalag 383.  The Germans started moving their prisoners West to escape from the advancing Russians in 1945 and Phillips was one of a group who wrestled control from the SS shortly before they were liberated by the Americans.  He then volunteered to return to active service and was about to be drafted to the Far East when Japan surrendered, Instead he went with the Welsh Guards to Palestine and on return took part in the first trooping of the colour since the war.  The escort to the colour was provided by the Welsh Guards 1st Battalion’s Prince of Wales Company with Phillips as the company sergeant-major.  After postings in West Germany and Berlin he took part in the 1953 coronation, then went on his first tour of duty at Sandhurst, as Regimental Sergeant Major of Old College, one of the three constituent parts of the Academy.  He was seconded to the King’s African Rifles in East Africa, then in the early 1960s returned to Sandhurst as Academy Sergeant-Major in succession to the legendary John Lord.  Colleagues warned him that Lord would be a difficult act to follow, especially as Phillips was the first Welsh Guardsman to the job, following a long line of Grenadiers.  But when Phillips retired in December 1970, marching up Old College steps after the Sovereign’s Parade, while the band played “Auld Land Syne” he had carved out his own place in Sandhurst history.  The army said at the time that had he accepted the chance of a commission he would probably have become a Lieutenant-Colonel. But he argued that while there were many lieutenant-colonels, there was only one Academy Sergeant-Major. On retirement he was offered the post of senior messenger sergeant-major of the Queen’s Bodyguard, twinned with that of superintendent of St. James’s Palace. The first involved organising the 66 man Body Guard as its only permanent official and parading with them in Tudor uniform and white ruff.  Already the veteran of King George V’s Silver Jubilee, George VI’s funeral and eight trooping of the colour, he now added a succession of state occasions, including the Prince of Wales’s wedding and the annual state opening of Parliament. One of his last parades marked The Body Guard’s 500th anniversary.  His other job consisted of running St James’s Palace and state apartments and brought with it his own apartment at the palace; after fifteen years he finally retired to his native Wales.  Phil Phillips was a notable rugby player in his youth, turning out as flanker for Newport, London Welsh and the army and for the Welsh Guards when they won the army cup after the war. In retirement he still played golf and worked for his local church and army charities.  He was survived by his wife, Glenys, their son and two daughters.

Dedication from Soldier Magazine - Death was his cell mate for a whole week, “Work or we shoot!” That was the daily threat as Phil Phillips his six foot two-inch frame wasted to nine stones by three years of captivity since Dunkirk  was brought with his comrades into the day- light from the evil smelling depths of their underground prison in East Prussia.  As the guards cocked their Chemises yet again, the tough 28 year old Welsh Guardsman thought; “This must be my darkest hour.” Perhaps it was, although the rebellious prisoners did win the right to refuse to work.  But his fate hung in the balance once more in the closing days of the war at another camp, Stalag 383 in Bavaria. As the Americans drew closer, war-weary SS guards wondered whether to shoot the prisoners or surrender to them. The SS forced a smile and handed over their weapons.  So fate decreed that ‘Phil Phillips – 14 stones these days, his tattered battledress replaced by a magnificent uniform of scarlet and gold – would symbolically guard the person of Queen Elizabeth II during the glittering ceremonies of Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee. From the comfort of a deep armchair in his spacious apartment at St James’s Palace, Mr Cyril ‘Phil Phillips, now 62 and Sergeant-Major of  The Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard, dismissed the dark days of the war with an elegant wave of the hand. Modestly, he said that most of the 81 members of the elite bodyguard could tell similar tales. But by any standards the story of this big man from Chepstow in the Wye Valley is remarkable. Thursday, 17 December 1970, was a good day for ‘Phil’ Phillips to reflect on a past well spent. At the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, 116 officer cadets were passing out at the Sovereign’s Parade reviewed by Field-Marshall Sir Gerald Templer. Academy Sergeant-Major Phillips, then 55, was leaving the Welsh Guards after 36 years for a new life in the Yeomen of the Guard, a royal bodyguard founded in 1485 by another Welshman, Henry Tudor, King of England, and the oldest military corps in the world. It was the sixteenth Sovereign’s Parade stage managed by ASM Phillips. Six thousand cadets, many of them senior officers now, had been his respectful charges. Nine foreign princes, three sheikhs and a sultan had been among them. No doubt all of them would have agreed with his remark on that day. “I abhor bad language, but I am a firm believer in loud words of command.” As the band played and the adjutant’s charger mounted the steps of Sandhurst’s Grand Entrance, it was a time to reflect. To reflect on that day in 1934 in Cardiff when at the age of 18 he joined the Welsh Guards and went to Caterham where the diet was such as to stick in the mind as well as the stomach – “brown stew, bread and dripping and onions.”  To reflect that as a member of the Prince of Wales’s Company of the Welsh Guards he took part in King George V’s silver jubilee. Later he marched in red tunic and bearskin at the coronation of George VI. To reflect on the lighter side of a young guardsman’s life in the thirties before the grim reality of a soldier’s lot on the shelled and mortared approaches to Dunkirk. There, as a colour-sergeant, he was involved in a rearguard action before his unit was overrun and he ‘went in the bag’ for five years. These were not passive years. He was one of a group of non-commissioned officers who refused to labour for the Germans and were banished to that subterranean goal in Prussia. Later, in Stalag 383, he was among those handcuffed for long periods when Hitler ordered Repressalien after Dieppe. A fellow prisoner at the time was Sergeant Fred Mulley of the Worcestershire regiment, now Secretary of State for Defence. And when the SS guards called it a day, Colour-Sergeant Phillips formed a platoon and joined the Americans in a battle against diehard fanatics. To reflect on the British Army post war – Palestine, Berlin, the young Queen’s coronation, an earlier spell at Sandhurst as sergeant-major of Old College, to Kenya as regimental sergeant-major of the 11th Battalion, The King’s African Rifles. And other memories – an extra in a film with Elizabeth Taylor; adviser on drill and dress for a Thames TV series ‘Frontier’ about a fictitious regiment in 19th century India; a game of golf with seven generals against a show business team and of course his MBE. And so today. After that final Sovereign’s Parade he became the first person to hold the twin posts of Superintendent of the State Apartments at St James’s Palace and Sergeant-Major of the Queen’s Bodyguard, of which he is the only permanent member. During the last seven years he has been at the monarch’s side at all the great occasions of State in a role that stretches back into deep history. From the orderly room in St James’s Palace he musters the part-time bodyguard, all handpicked for their distinguished military records, and parades them to Friary Court before they leave by coach for the centre of the Royal Stage. He is a giant among equals – a superb sergeant-major among super sergeant-majors. Mostly, the magnificent 81 are former ‘high-powered’ warrant officers of the Army, Royal Marines or RAF. Together they can muster 500 medals and close on 200 years of military service. “It’s like a brotherhood,” says their sergeant-major. As he leads them through centuries old drill – “a partisan (or pike) is a different kettle of soldiering from an SLR! (Self Loading Rifle)” – His immaculate pedigree is apparent in every measured step. It is all a very long way from that dungeon in wartime Germany for a man who epitomises that hoary old saying “old soldiers never die.” In this case, they don’t even fade away.

Division; he rose to the rank of Sergeant Major within the Body Guard sometime between 1911 and his death.  He was present at the Inspection of the Guard by King Edward VII and the following year by King George V. William died on 17 May 1913 and entitled to a Long Service and Good Conduct (LS&GC) medal and three Jubilee and Coronation medals.

Image (standing) by kind permission of Mr David Elvin (descendant)
Image (seated) from an album held in the Guardroom of St James' Palace.

Biography: Edited from The Yeomen of the Guard 1823-1903 by Ian McInnes (ISBN 1-900734-19-2)

Image by kind permission of Joy Schneider (descendant)
Biography: Edited from The Yeomen of the Guard 1823-1903 by Ian McInnes (ISBN 1-900734-19-2) and newspaper obituary.

At St James’ Palace on 3 April 1974 he was sworn-in as a member of the Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard by Her Majesty.  On 12 June 1982 Yeoman Window was awarded Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and in August 1989 he was promoted to the rank of Divisional Sergeant Major in the Queen's Body Guard.  In 1994, after 20 years loyal service to Her Majesty through his commitments with The Queen’s Body Guard he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Victorian Order (MVO(Silver)).  Just to prove that you can’t keep a good man down Drummond is very active in the Dunscroft & District Branch of the Royal British Legion.  He is still collecting great achievement awards having received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire for long and devoted service as Parade Marshal for the Royal British Legion.     

Mr Drummond Window was granted a Coat of Arms by the Lancaster Herald, Royal College of Arms, London. The motto "NON SIBI SED PATRIAE" ( Not for himself, but for his Country) says it all. The Arms are described as Crest - RAF Police Griffin with Partizan; Blazoned Shield - Flaming Sword (3), D Day insignia with Civil Police (Fess); Chequy across centre of Shield; Badges - Partizan Heads (2) within Annulets; Honours - MBE, RVM suspended at Base.    Mr Drummond Window's web-site  and also of interest is www.fight4thePJM.org

Sergeant Major James Donelan – 44th Regiment of Foot, Essex Regiment –Royal Longford Rifles – Royal East Middlesex Militia

James Donelan was born in 1823 near Kenagh, Co. Longford.  At the age of 20 he enlisted in the 44th
Regiment of Foot at Athlone, Co. Westmeath.  The 44th were recruiting heavily at the time having suffered great losses   ( 652 out of 684 ) at Ganamak, in Afghanistan the previous year.

He rose rapidly in the ranks, becoming Corporal in April 1844, Sergeant in July 1844, Colour Sergeant in July 1847 and Sergeant Major in March 1861. He was with his regiment all through the long and arduous campaign of the Crimea, receiving the English Crimea medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol, and the Turkish war medal.  He was also one of the 100 English non-commissioned officers to receive the special French Medal Militaire given by the Emperor Napoleon 111 for valour and services rendered during the war.

He was particularly mentioned for gallantry during the attack on Sebastopol in the despatches of Major General William Eyre KCB.  James Donelan was also with his regiment when they were sent to India during the closing stages of the Mutiny.

In 1864 James Donelan received his pension after 21 years service and was appointed Sergeant Instructor to the old 37th Middlesex Rifles  ( 19th Middlesex ( Bloomsbury ) Rifles )  He then went to Ireland as Sergeant Instructor of the Militia (Royal Longford Rifles), and afterwards returned to England and for some time acted as orderly room clerk, at the Militia Barracks at Well Walk, Hampstead.

It was during this time, 1872, that he was appointed to Her Majesty’s Yeoman of the Guard, and remained connected with this honourable and ancient corps up to 1898, when he was superannuated from duties.

James Donelan died 9th January 1900, having spent 57 years in Her Majesty’s service, a record not often eclipsed.

Daniel Cambridge was born at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, and he enlisted in the Royal Artillery on 24 June 1839 at the age of 18, having been attested at Lisburn some four days before.  On attestation he gave his occupation as that of labourer and he is recorded as being 5 feet 8 inches tall with a fresh complexion, dark grey eyes and dark brown hair.  On enlistment he joined the 4^th Battalion and served as a Gunner and Driver with the 2^nd Company of that battalion in Malta from 14 February, 1841 to 16 March 1847.  On 1 September following, he transferred to the 1^st Battalion with which he served in Canada between the 21 August 1848 and 21 November 1853.  On 1 March 1854 he reverted briefly to the 4^th Battalion, being transferred on the 1^st of the next month to the 8^th Company, 11^th Battalion. In June this Company embarked in the transports Sydney, Jason and Harbinger and, after passing through Scutari and Varna and having changed transports, disembarked in the Crimea on 19 September as part of the Siege Train.  As such it was present at Inkerman and at all six bombardments of Sebastopol. On 3 April 1855, Cambridge was promoted Bombardier and it was in this rank that he won his Victoria Cross. The assault on the Redan was fixed for 8 September of that year and the attacking troops were to be accompanied by a small Royal Artillery spiking party commanded by Captain Gronow Davies.  Cambridge joined this party which was made up of some twenty volunteers drawn from various companies.  In the event, that assault failed and the party was not used. Nevertheless, its services were not completely wasted and Cambridge’s published citation reads as follows.

“For having volunteered for the spiking party at the assault on the Redan, 8 September 1855, and continuing therewith, after being severely wounded; and for having in the after part of the same day, gone out in front of the advanced trench, under heavy fire, to bring in a wounded man, in performing which service, he was himself wounded a second time.”

But this is not the full story.  In the library of the Royal Artillery Institution there is an MSS book which contains a copy of the original citation sent to the Adjutant-General of the Forces on 19 December 1856.  This is somewhat fuller than the published version and relates that Cambridge was first wounded in the leg but refused to retire, although recommended to do so.  The citation adds that it was in front of the advanced trench in the Quarries that he was severely wounded a second time, being shot through the jaw.  Lieutenant-Colonel Strange and Captain Davis are given as recommending the award.  Nor does the matter rest here since in a letter dated 12 July 1865 and addressed to JA Browne, the author of “England’s Artillerymen” Cambridge himself gives fuller details.  At the time Cambridge was serving as a Master-Gunner at Tarbert Fort in Argyllshire and his actual letter is to be found in an MSS book also preserved in the library of the Royal Artillery Institution, from which Browne apparently intended to produce a further edition of his work.  The relevant portion of the letter reads as follows:-

I see you have my name recorded as one of the few at the same time I would mention to you and also refer you to Major G Davis VC, that I was 3 times wounded on the 8 September.  However, it is very little difference now although I suffer from my wounds and still will from what the doctors say until my last.  I was twice wounded when asked to retire to the rear but that I did by all means declined to do although hard pressed to do so by several officers.  But finding that I had the strength to stand another chance I advance a third time with the 3^rd Buffs when I received a gunshot wound in my right jaw and by the assistance of several doctors I have at present got 185 bits of bone out of my jaw.  And I can assure you that I suffer very much from my head, I may say all over.

In the London Gazette of 26 September 1855, Cambridge is officially listed as severely wounded which, in view of the foregoing is hardly an understatement!

During March 1856, Cambridge returned home and on 21 April following was promoted Sergeant in the 7^th Company, 11^th Battalion.  As previously mentioned his recommendation for the Cross was forwarded on 19 December 1856.  This must have been unknown to Cambridge since from a copy letter preserved in the War Office; it appears that he wrote to Lord Panmure soliciting the award himself.  From the acknowledgement sent to Cambridge it appears that the original letter had been accompanied by enclosures, which may have been reports by witnesses.  Unfortunately, the letter and enclosures are no longer available but a further copy letter shows that they were forwarded to the Commander-in-Chief on 1 May 1857.  In due course the award was gazetted on the 23 June following, and the Cross presented to Cambridge by Queen Victoria in Hyde Park three days later. Soon afterwards Cambridge received the Sardinian “Al Valore Militaire” the citation for which although to some extent covering the action at the Redan, is rather wider and reads as follows:-

“Served in the trenches throughout the whole of the siege of Sebastopol. formed one of the spiking party on 8 September 1855, on which occasion he was severely wounded.  Was noticed for his cool and intrepid conduct under fire.  This non-commissioned officer has received the Victoria Cross.”

It is interesting to note that on the actual medal his rank is given correctly as Bombardier. In 1857 Cambridge was appointed Master-Gunner at Athlone, “vice McGowan about to be pensioned”.  In 1861 he was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with a gratuity of £10; the Order making the award shows that he was still serving at Athlone and gives his unit as 8^th Battery, Coast Brigade.  His record of service shows that he was deprived of Id per diem pay for one year commencing 3 November 1853 and this may have retarded his eligibly for the medal by a corresponding period.   In 1862 he was posted as Master-Gunner to Tarbert Fort with effect from the 11 February “vice Lindsay pensioned.”  As well be seen from the address given in his letter to Browne mentioned above, in 1865 he was still serving at Tarbert Fort.  On 27 June 1871, Cambridge was pensioned after almost thirty-two years service and the same year became a Yeoman of the Guard. Adye, in his “Recollections of a Military Life” tells a story which must be about Cambridge although he does not mention him by name and states, incorrectly, that he served in the Mutiny.  Adye says:-
 

“It appears that Prince Menschikoff and two Russian Grand Dukes were present on the field of Inkerman during the day;  and that reminds me of a curious incident which occurred in relation to one of them long years afterwards.  A gunner of the Royal Artillery served throughout the war, was wounded, receiving the Victoria Cross for his gallant conduct.  Subsequently he served during the Indian Mutiny, and was again wounded.  After he was pensioned I was partially instrumental in obtaining for him an appointment in the Yeomen of the Guard.  Being on one occasion on duty in one of the corridors of Buckingham Palace (at a State Ball, if I remember rightly), a foreign officer who proved to be a Russian Grand Duke, came up, spoke to him, and examined his decorations.  He asked him about his Victoria Cross and then, seeing he had the Crimean Medal and clasp for Inkerman, said, ‘Were you at that battle?’ ‘Yes sir,’ was the reply. ‘So was I,’ said the Grand Duke.  The old Yeoman in telling me the story, said he thought he might be so bold, so he replied to the Grand Duke, ‘Well, sir, if you was at Inkerman, I hope we may never meet again on so unpleasant occasion.’”

The photograph (above) shows Cambridge in his Yeoman’s uniform and was taken by Messrs. Soper & Stedman of 147 The Stand. London.  Wilkins in his “History of the Victoria Cross” illustrates a slightly different photograph which, however, may well have been taken on the same occasion.  In the top row of medals Cambridge wards first his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal followed by the British and Turkish Crimean Medals; in the second row he wears the Al Valore Militare and lastly, the Victoria Cross.  It will be noticed that he has had the original suspenders of both the Turkish and Sardinian medals removed and the horn-shaped suspender, as issued with the Mutiny and Second China War medals, substituted.  According to his death certificate at Somerset House, Cambridge died from “general debility” on 4 June 1882, at 32 Fredrick Place, Plumstead, after an illness lasting three and half months, and his son-in-law, a Mr. James McCormick was present at his death.

Images supplied by Peter JW Howell great-great grandson - contact peter_howell@btinternet.com for more information.
Official biography from Army Historical Research; entry written by Maj PE Abbott RA (retd), psc, FRSA, FSA (Scot)

In 1947 he was seconded to the North Somerset Yeomanry (a Territorial Army (TA) unit under the care of the 3rd Hussars), which had been in suspended animation in the immediate post-war years. He submitted the Territorials to airborne training with the emphasis on parachuting and gliding.  After two years he returned to to 3rd Hussars (RAC). After service with the 6th Armoured Division and 3rd Hussars he was posted to the UK as RSM of the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Chertsey, Surrey (FVRDE).  After 4 years he retired as Senior RSM of the now Queen's Own Hussars.   When he retired from the Army he took over The Ram public house at Widcombe, where he was licensee from 1961 to 1963.  He then accepted a position at with the Dynamics Group, British Aerospace, where he remained for 20 yrs until retirement.  Fred Laing joined the Queen's Body Guard 1964 and rose to the rank of Divisional Sergeant Major (DSM) and retired at the age of 70 in 1988.  DSM Laing died in 1999.   

Served with the 10th Hussars. He enlisted 15 September 1853 and served for 24 years including service in the Crimea War, being entitled to the two medals and the Long Service and Good Conduct medal. In February 1868 the Regiment was on duty at Cork at the trial of Captain William MacKay Lomasney, an Irish-American Fenian, when the whole of the Country was at boiling point. He was appointed the The Queen's Body Guard on 14 April 1888 and was still serving on 3 November 1913 when he was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal without annuity as a Yeomen of King George V's Body Guard. He was also entitled to the three Royal Commemorative Medals of 1897, 1902 and 1911.

James Templeman's father was from Somerset but was living in India when James was born 8 September 1838. The family moved back to England and James joined the 10th Hussars. He married Susan Long from Devon in 1863. They had five daughters, at least two of whom married soldiers. In 1899 Susan died and James married a much younger woman called Olive Foreman whose family were from Kent. They were both working at the Cuckoo Schools in Hanwell, James as a bandmaster. He had another family, three daughters and finally a son. His children were spread in age from 1864 to 1911. The seventh daughter was call Rita, the grandmother of Alice Noad (see below) and her brother Paul Clarke. James died aged 77 on 8 January 1916 at Ivy Mead, 10 Westminster Road, Hanwell. He is buried at the City of Westminster Cemetery there. His second wife died in 1948

Images and biography about James Templeman's life outside of the military supplied courtesy of Mr Timothy Noad whose wife Alice Noad is the great granddaughter of Yeo Templeman.  Timothy Noad also has a claim to fame;  he is an Herald Painter (heraldic artist) at the College of Arms and among his fine work are three replacement panels in the ceiling of the Chapel Royal which were placed in 2002, and the royal arms on the Golden Jubilee Medal.

Image supplied by Mr Paul Stuart Bennett.
Joseph Ward was Mr Bennett's Great Uncle.