Second Lieutenant, Royal Artillery
Born: March 31st 1914
Died: June 20th 1942
Age at Death: 28
Killed on active service, June 20th 1942
Philip Groves was born on 31 March 1914 in Leeds, Yorkshire, to Ernest Groves, a schoolmaster, and his wife Gertrude (née Blackwell). Philip was known at the College as ‘Shakespeare’, which suggests a literary inclination, and won a prize for German. Nevertheless, after leaving the College he took a BSc at Imperial College, London, before setting off to Asia to become a geologist with the Burma Oil Company, prospecting for oil. A letter written to the school by his brother after Philip’s death suggests a distant relationship with his family, since his brother notes that the family did not see him in the last six years of his life.
In 1940 Groves joined the Royal Artillery. He was posted first to Iraq, and then to the desert campaign in North Africa. In June 1942 he died of wounds incurred in Libya, and is buried there at the Knightsbridge War Cemetery.