WAR MEMORIAL

Private Alfred John Phillips

Alfred John Phillips was born in Morchard Bishop, as were his father, William Phillips, and his grandfather, Samuel Phillips. In 1889 William married Bessie Parish from Lapford and Alfred was born at the end of the year. They had a second son, William, the following year. William senior and his father were agricultural labourers and farm horsemen, so they tended to move from parish to parish. In the census of 1871 Samuel and his family were at Pitt Cottage, Thelbridge. Ten years later William was an “indoor farm servant” for Samuel Hale at East A(i)sh, Morchard Bishop: William’s place of birth was listed as Thelbridge. By 1891 Mr and Mrs William Phillips and their two sons were at Lilly Brook Cottage, Sandford, and a decade later at Uton, Crediton.

Alfred spent his formative years at Sandford and Uton, and in 1911 “John Phillips” was a “horseman on farm” for Richard Webber at “Lower Gatehouse, Washford Pyne, Morchard Bishop”. Morchard Bishop parish and Morchard Bishop postal district were two different entities. Just after the outbreak of war he married Amy Steer, the daughter of John Steer, who had been a “horseman on farm” at Venny Tedburn. In 1911 Amy was one of four servants to a Phillips family (no relation) at Littleham, Exmouth. Alfred and Amy had one daughter; the family lived at Ladysmith Road in Exeter where Alfred worked as a baker.

He was probably conscripted in the summer of 1916, as conscription of married men was introduced in May 1916, although he may have volunteered before that date, which allowed him to select his regiment. Either way he would have been in France by Christmas 1916. He became Private 44956 Phillips of the 1st Battalion The Devonshire Regiment. The 1st Battalion saw plenty of action in 1917 including the Battle of Broodseinde, which is where Alfred was killed in action and Private Thomas Henry Sage from Tiverton won the Victoria Cross. The Battle was fought on 4 October 1917 near Ypres and was the most successful of that period; it was fought in heavy rain which turned the ground into a quagmire and cost the Allies 20,000 casualties and losses.

Alfred was buried near the place where he fell at Zillebeke and was subsequently exhumed and re-buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery, less than two miles away. There are 5923 Commonwealth servicemen buried at Hooge Crater, of which 3579 are unidentified. Alfred was identified by his disc, or dog tag, which had not been removed as he had been reported missing, presumed dead. Collecting paybooks and dog tags from the dead was the normal procedure for recording purposes, and it partly explains why there are so many ‘unknown warriors’ from World War 1.

Alfred’s re-burial took place during the 1920s, his next of kin is listed as Mrs A. Lock of 97 Ladysmith Road, Exeter. Amy Phillips married Edgar W Lock in Exeter in the summer of 1921. Alfred is commemorated on Crediton’s War Memorial, but not Morchard Bishop’s.

Bob Patten