Background
Robert James Phillips was born February 11, 1882 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Although there is limited information on Robert’s birth parents, the 1891 census shows that he was raised primarily by his uncle Paul and a woman named Jane Wilbur, as well as his aunts Elizabeth and Maggie. A local police officer in Fredericton, Paul occupied a home in the city along with his sisters and they all played a large role in raising Robert. Newspapers suggest that Robert, or “Bob” as he was known to friends and family, was a well-known young man in the area and grew up attending the Brunswick Street Baptist Church. As a teenager, Robert was a successful baseball player and member of the Young Tarters Club. When the Boer War broke out in South Africa, as a nineteen- year-old, he joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles and left from Halifax, Nova Scotia in January 1902. Upon his return he met a young woman from Doaktown named Margaret May Parker. Records reveal that Margaret had a child from a previous relationship named Clyde Price; however, there is no evidence that she was ever previously married. Although accounts clearly show that Robert and Margaret were married December 9, 1909, there are no marriage documents to confirm this. On May 25, 1910, their son was born, Frederick Henry Phillips. At the time of their son’s birth, Robert and Margaret were living on 648 King Street with their uncle and Robert was working as a painter and labourer in the area. Newspapers show that he likely had close ties with another Boer War veteran in the community, Francis McManiman. When war broke out in Europe, both Robert and Francis went overseas with the 12th Battalion but enlisted with British units once in England. Robert was described as standing five feet seven inches tall and being thirty-three years of age at the time of his enlistment in Southhampton, England.
Wartime Experience
Private Phillips was posted to the 3rd Dorset Regiment on January 21, 1915 as part of the 1st Battalion once in England. On February 10, Phillips wrote home explaining that he was heading to the front as part of a draft of reinforcements and that “there’s no fooling here and it don’t take them very long to make a soldier out of a man…we’ll be in the fighting within two weeks. The boys in this regiment think a great deal of us because we are Canadians.” A week later, Robert was in northern France. According to the war diaries of the 3rd Dorset Regiment, he was in Ypres, Belgium by March 1. Over the next few months, Private Phillips remained in the Ypres Salient with British units near Hill 60, an important high ground that overlooked much of the surrounding area. While in the trenches in late April Robert experienced for the first time the devastating impact chemical weapons could have on a battlefield. On April 22, at approximately five o’clock, the German army released more than one hundred and sixty tons of chlorine gas into a north-east wind along the salient against British, Canadian, and French forces. For those caught in the massive gas cloud many were killed as a result of experiencing asphyxiation, while others felt the burning of their throat, eyes, and nose, as well as scars that would never fully heal. Escaping the first few uses of chlorine gas, on May 1, 1915, Robert was with the Dorsets near Hill 60 when more gas was released. This time he would not survive as his body would never be recovered. In a letter written home to family, Col. H.S. Scholes explained:
“It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has this day been received from the war office notifying the death of Private R. J. Phillips, which occurred with the British Expeditionary Force in France on the 1st day of May 1915. I am to express to you the sympathy and regret of the Army Council at your loss. The cause of death was poison gas.”
Newspapers would report Robert’s death noting that his four-year old son, Frederick, “was almost heart-broken this morning when he learned that his father had been killed.” As news spread of his death, deep regret and sympathy was felt by many in the community who knew him. Many expressed sincere sorrow for his wife and son. Robert’s wife passed away in 1963, while his son Frederick served during the Second World War and returned to New Brunswick later to become the first photo archivist of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Frederick passed away in 1988.
Lest We Forget
Private Robert James Phillips is honoured on the Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial located in Ypres, Belgium. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he is one of approximately 54, 000 names honoured to remember individuals whose bodies have never been found while fighting in Belgium during the First World War.