Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/277

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Phillips
263
Phillips

division of the army engaged in the second campaign of the second Afghan war, and had charge of the line of communication by Quetta to Kandahar. After the disaster of Maiwand, on 27 July, he was directed to push forward to Kandahar, besieged by Ayoub Khan; but he was delayed by want of troops and transport, and Kandahar was delivered by General (afterwards Earl) Roberts from Kabul before his arrival. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 3 Dec. 1880 and 25 Jan. 1881), was included in the vote of thanks of parliament, was made K.C.B. on 22 Feb. 1881, and received the medal.

He commanded a division of the Bombay army from 1 March 1881 to 2 March 1886, when the Bombay government paid a high compliment to his services on his retirement. For some months previously he had acted as provincial commander-in-chief at Bombay. On 22 Jan. 1887 he was placed on the unemployed supernumerary list. He had become lieutenant-general on 1 Nov. 1881, and became general on 22 Jan. 1889. He received the G.O.B. on 26 May 1894. He died in London on 28 Jan. 1897. In 1846 he had married Diana Bunbury, daughter of Arnold Thompson, formerly paymaster of the 81st regiment. She survived him. He took an active part in religious and philanthropic movements, and published some pamphlets in 1890: 1. 'The Bible versus Corrupt Christianity.' 2. 'The Foundation of Rock or of Sand : which?' (in reply to Henry Drummond). 3. 'Monasticism unveiled.'

[Times, 29 Jan. 1897; Thornton's Life of Sir Richard Meade; Roberts's Forty-one Years in India; Official Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia.]

PHILLIPS, MOLESWORTH (1755–1832), lieutenant-colonel and companion of Captain Cook, born on 15 Aug. 1755, was son of John Phillips of Swords, co. Dublin. His father was a natural son of Richard Molesworth, third viscount Molesworth' [q. v.], whence Phillips acquired his Christian name. He first entered the royal navy, but on the advice of his friend Sir Joseph Banks [q. v.] he accepted a commission as second lieutenant in the royal marines on 17 Jan. 1776. In this capacity he was selected to accompany Captain Cook on his last voyage, extending over nearly three years [see Cook, James]. He sailed with Cook from Plymouth on 12 July 1776, and was with the marines who escorted Cook when he landed at Hawaii on 14 Feb. 1779. In Webber's picture of the 'Death of Captain Cook' Phillips is represented kneeling and firing at the native who was clubbing Cook. Phillips was himself wounded, but, having remained to the last on the shore, swam for the boats. Once he turned back and helped another wounded marine to the boats. His gallantry was in marked contrast with the conduct of John Williamson, a fellow-lieutenant of marines, who, having remained a passive spectator of the scene, frequently quarrelled with Phillips on the voyage home, and was eventually cashiered for cowardice at Camperdown, a sentence which Nelson thought ought to have been capital (Nelson, Despatches, iii. 2).

On 1 Nov. 1780 Phillips was promoted captain, and on 10 Jan. 1782 he married Susanna Elizabeth, third daughter of Dr. Charles Burney (1726-1814) [q. v.], and sister of Madame D'Arblay and of James Burney [q. v.], Phillips's friend, who, like him, had accompanied Cook on his last voyage. This marriage brought Phillips into connection with the Burneys' literary and musical friends Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Thrale, and others. He had no further active service, but was promoted brever major on 1 March 1794, and brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 Jan. 1798. From 1784, for the sake of his wife's health, he lived for a time at Boulogne, but after the French revolution the Phillipses resided chiefly at Mickleham, Surrey, not far from Juniper Hall, where Madame D'Arblay entertained numbers of French emigres. From 1796 to 1799, during the alarm of a French invasion of Ireland, Phillips felt it his duty to reside on the Irish estates at Beleotton, which he had inherited from an uncle. On 6 Jan. 1800 his wife died. She was buried at Neston on the 12th.

After the peace of Amiens, Phillips visited France in 1802, and he was one of those who were seized by Napoleon on the renewal of the war, and detained in France until the peace of 1814 (Alger, Englishmen in the French Revolution, p. 278). During this detention he made friends with Talleyrand and other well-known Frenchmen. After his return to England he became acquainted with Southey, Mary and Charles Lamb, who described him as 'the high-minded associate of Cook, the veteran colonel, with his lusty heart still sending cartels of defiance to old Time' (Lamb, Works, ed. Fitzgerald, vi. 75), and with John Thomas Smith (1766-1833) [q. v.], whom he supplied with various anecdotes for his 'Nollekens and his Times' (i. 164, 200, ii. 218). He died of cholera at his house in Lambeth on 11 Sept. 1832, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster, where an inscription commemorates