1943_07_12_phillips_christopher.jpg

Flying Officer, RAF
Born: July 27th 1922
Died: July 12th 1943

Age at Death: 20

Killed in action, July 12th 1943

School Prefect 1940
1st 15 1939-1940
Boxing 8 1940

Christopher was born in Steyning, Sussex, on 27 July 1922 to Cecil Phillips, a schoolmaster who became head of a prep school in Brighton, and his wife Mary (née Posford). At the College he was a School Prefect, and a member of both the 1st XV and Boxing VIII.

On leaving school he joined the RAF and flew bombers with 14 Squadron, which supported troops in East Africa and then in the Western Desert campaign. By July 1943 the squadron was sweeping the Mediterranean looking for submarines, flying the US Martin Marauder.

Christopher is buried in the Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery in Tunisia, so we can surmise that he died there. The squadron was not based in Tunisia, so he is unlikely to have succumbed to illness. It is most likely that he crashed, either in an accident or because his plane was damaged during a mission.

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