Thomas Phillips (Naval officer)
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Admiral Sir Thomas "Tom" Spencer Vaughan Phillips KCB (1888-1941) had a successful career in the Royal Navy. He was nicknamed "Tom Thumb" owing to his short stature and was married to Lady Phillips of Bude, Cornwall. He is best known for his command of Force Z during the Japanese invasion of Malaya.
Phillips was the son of Colonel Thomas Vaughan Wynn Phillips, Royal Artillery, and Louisa Mary Adeline de Horsey Phillips. He was the grandson of Admiral Sir Algernon Frederick Rous de Horsey. He joined the Royal Navy in 1903. In 1932 he was appointed assistant director of the plan division.
From 1 June, 1939 until 21 October, 1941 Phillips was Deputy and then Vice Chief the Naval Staff. In July, 1941 he helped to undermine the credibility of the first Inquiry into the sinking of HMS Hood.
Phillips was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet in late 1941, based in Singapore. In December 1941, he took to sea in command of Force Z, an Allied naval detachment consisting of Philip's flagship the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and four destroyers, sent to intercept Japanese landings in Malaya. Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese air attack on 10 December 1941. Philips went down with his ship.
References
- Mark M. Boatner: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II. - Presidio Press, Novato CA, 1996. – ISBN 0-89141-548-3
- H. G. Thursfield: Phillips, Sir Tom Spencer Vaughan (1888–1941). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. – Oxford und New York, 1959
External links
- [Tom Phillips from the "Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives"]
- ["Order of Battle/Force Z/10 December 1941 (en.)]
- ["St Andrew's Cathedral" in Singapore (en.)]
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