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Sharpshooter Company - GH Phillips - 80th Imperial Yeomanry 11 years 8 months ago #12860

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George Henry Phillips

Private, 80th Company, 21st battalion, Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 & 1902

George Phillips story starts with the marriage of his father, George Phillips, to Louisa Cheel at the church of St. James the Great in Middlesex on 14 August 1871. His father was a Gunsmith by trade .

George, according to his Birth Certificate, made his entry into the world of Victorian London on 28 February 1879 when he was born at 7 Bermuda Street, Mile End Old Town, London.

Quite where the family found themselves during the 1881 England census is a mystery but by they had returned to be counted in the 1891 census where the family were living at 78 Heath Street, Mile End Old Town, Stepney. It was quite a large family with George (12) joined in the house by siblings Louisa (18), Maria (17), William (14), Emily (9) and Albert (2).

Eight short years later the Empire was engaged in a war with the two South African Republics. This had started in October of 1899 and despite predictions that “the troops would be home by Christmas” was still raging on when Phillips, no doubt succumbing to the zeal of army recruiters, attested for service in Cockspur Street on 28 January 1901 with the 80th Company of the 21st Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. This outfit were know as the 2nd Sharpshooters and were raised in the very month that Phillips joined.

On his attestation forms he claimed to have been in service with the 3rd London Rifles and that he wanted to join the Sharpshooters Corps. He provided his father of 24 Wade Street, Poplar as his next of kin and confirmed that he was a Clerk by way of occupation.

Now aged 21 years and 11 months he was 5 feet 6 ½ inches in height, weighed 133 pounds and had fair complexion, blue eyes and auburn hair. Dr. Hasting Stewart of the RAMC pronounced him Fit form the army.

The Sharpshooters sailed for South Africa in March 1901 and Phillips and his comrades entered the fray against the Boers shortly thereafter.

The full history of the Imperial Yeomanry and their deeds in South Africa has still to be written but it can safely be said that they saw their fair share of action against the Boers – by this stage of the war not in pitched battles, for the Guerrilla phase now held sway, - but in hot pursuit operations across the countryside as the Boers weaved their way in and out of encirclements to fight another day.

All told, Phillips was in South Africa from mid March 1901 until 10 August 1902 on which date he set sail for England.

In total he was credited with 1 year and 201 days service, earning the Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 and 1902 in the process.

Discharge at Aldershot on 16 August 1902 on the termination of his engagement; Phillips was given a Character rating of Very Good. His return address was 13 Beauchamp Road, Forest Dale, Essex.

Perhaps it was the climate but whatever the reason Phillips tired of life in England and took passage to South Africa a month or so later. On 28 October 1902 he enlisted with the Natal Police in Pietermaritzburg and was assigned no. 2903 and the rank of Trooper. His service was to be of shhort duration - on 12 December 1905 he took discharge at his won request with a Character rating of Exemplary.

There was time for romance as well - he met and married first Alice Maude Patrick on 4 August 1906 at the house of Rev. Berry in Pietermaritzburg but after she passed away some years later he married Irene Phillipine Christine Elisabeth Muller in Gluckstadt, close to Vryheid, on 15 February 1919. Phillips was a Commercial Traveller at the time. The Natal Directory of 1918 has him in Durban employed by W.G. Brown & Co. of Pinetown.

Up until at least 1925 the couple lived in Durban and were blessed with four children.

George Phillips passed away on 6 October 1945 at the age of 65.