Joseph Phillips

Bank: Isle of Man Banking Co

Place of work: Head Office, Douglas

Died: 20 March 1918

Joseph Ambrose Phillips was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, on 20 May 1898, the son of Joseph Ambrose Phillips, a tailor, and his wife Jane Elizabeth. In June 1914, when he was 16 years old, Phillips joined Isle of Man Bank as an apprentice at the bank's Douglas head office.

In January 1917 Phillips left his job at the bank to go on military service. He enlisted in the 15th (Civil Service Rifles) Battalion of the London Regiment and was sent out to France in May 1917. There he was present at the retreat from Cambrai, during which he lost his entire kit but was otherwise unharmed. Phillips was killed in action in France, near Nesle, on 20 March 1918, when a fired shell exploded prematurely. At the time of his death he was serving as a Private in the London Regiment. His family did not learn of his death until May 1918, although they had already grown anxious because they were no longer receiving letters from him.