PHILIP, William Swan (1883-1963)William Swan Philip was born at Kadnook Station, Harrow on 18 March 1883, the son of John Philip and Katherine nee Swan.
Philip was first educated at Hamilton Academy before enrolment as a boarder at Geelong College in 1900 where he was a member of the College 1st Cricket XI in 1901. His address when he enrolled was Ascot Heath, Dartmoor via Heywood.
He commenced a pastoral career on Ascot Heath Station, remaining there for nine years, then became part-owner of 'Glencoe', Nullawil, with his brother Alexander Philip, and W B Ronald
1 .
William travelled to England with W Bruce Ronald, and enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) in 1915, holding the rank of Lieutenant. While in Egypt on leave W S Philip married Mary Wentworth Greene, of Kyneton, the daughter of William Wentworth Greene, a police magistrate in Victoria. The ceremony took place at St Mark's Church, Alexandria, Egypt, with a reception afterwards at the British Consulate. They had met on board
SS Mooltan en route to England in 1915, where Mary was a nurse with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service Reserve. She saw service in Egypt and on hospital ship duty in the Mediterranean.
William served with the Divisional Ammunition Column on the Balkan Front for three and a half years, and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. He was promoted to the rank of Captain, with the Royal Field Artillery, prior to his return to Australia in 1918. The
Pastoral Review of 15 June 1918 reported that he was home on leave.
His younger brother, also an Old Collegian, Lt E T Philip, Royal Flying Corp (RFC), was killed in action when acting as an Observer on 18 June 1917. He was buried in the Strand Militaxy Cemetery, Belgium.
His father, John Philip (1854-1916), brothers, Alexander Stuart Philip (1885-1953), James Duncan Philip (1889-1959),
Edgar Thomas Philip (1894-1917), Miles Wallace Phillip (1898-1932), and Eric McMurrick Philip (1900-1991), were also educated at Geelong College.
1 His cousin, William Bruce Ronald, educated at Sydney and Melbourne Grammar Schools, was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). He served in Egypt until December 1915, and in the Macedonian campaign, 1916-1917, being in all the actions with 10th Division on the Struma Front, and in the Palestine campaign, 1917-1918.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War p 284 compiled by James Affleck.(citing Alexander Henderson, Henderson's Australian Families (1941); Lyell Horwood (editor), From Ship To Sheep: The Philip Family of Miga Lake and their descendants (1984); The Pegas us;
National Archives).