PHILLIPS, David Andrew
| Service Number: | 974 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 4 February 1916, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Company Sergeant Major |
| Last Unit: | 39th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Clunes, Victoria, Australia, 1887 |
| Home Town: | Clunes, Hepburn, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Grocer |
| Memorials: | Clunes Soldiers Pictorial Honour Roll |
Biography contributed by Robert Wight
David Andrew Phillips enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne on 4 February 1916, aged almost 29. He embarked overseas on 27 May and arrived in England on 18 July 1916, where he spent the next three months training in Wiltshire. He left England and arrived in France on 23 November 1916.
He suffered shell shock and concussion during a German bombardment of the frontlines at Houplines on 31 January 1917, was hospitalised for several months and re-joined the 39th Battalion on 13 May 1917. His first major action was at the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917, after which he was promoted to Corporal (16 June), Sergeant (11 July) and then Company Sergeant Major (13 September) in quick succession.
He attended a training course at Havre from 2 – 22 October 1917 and was fortunate to miss much of the horror of Third Ypres. The battalion was rushed south to the Somme in late March 1918 and was involved around Morlancourt during the German Spring Offensive.
On 30 July 1918, he was transferred to the 9th (Brigade’s) Training Battalion at Fovant Camp in Wiltshire, where he remained until late January 1919, after which he returned to France and re-joined his battalion on 1 February 1919.
He embarked for Australia on 27 May and arrived in Adelaide on 17 July, after which he travelled by rail back to Melbourne, where he was formally discharged from the AIF on 2 October 1919.
Source: Extract from "Clunes Soldiers Memorial Panel" by Robert Wight, June 2022.
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