Reginald John Phillips

 

Reginald John Phillips
Noirmoutier-en-L’lle
Communal Cemetery
credit - findagrave

There are 43 burials in Noirmoutier-en-L’lle Communal Cemetery, France.  The common date of those who were killed who are buried there is 17^th June 1940, including Reginald John Phillips.

Reginald John Phillips was the son of Alfred James Gilbert and Beatrice May Phillips born in 1915.

Only Alfred James Gilbert is recorded on the 1921 Census, as living at 35 Jersey Terrace, the census record refers to two children under the age of 16 living at the property.  Could this have been Reginald and a sibling?

Reginald John Phillips

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Reggie Phillips joined the Army immediately posted to France, suggesting that he was either a reservist or in the Territorial Army. He returned to Swansea on leave in March 1940 and married Elizabeth (Betty) Arthurs.

He was based in Nantes as a clerk with No.1 Sub Depot Royal Army Ordnance Corps. With the rapidly deteriorating situation in France, at 6 pm on the 16^th of June 1940, he was evacuated to the port of Saint-Nazaire. His best friend, Private Rees, was kept behind to destroy the unit's records and hardware, an order which in all probability saved his life. Reggie Phillips was one of some 5,000 plus servicemen and civilians aboard the ex-Cunard liner R.M.S. Lancastria when she was sunk by German air action off Saint-Nazaire on the afternoon of the 17^th of June and was listed as missing in action.

R.M.S. Lancastria

Throughout June and into mid-July his wife and family waited anxiously for news, making inquiries of Corps Headquarters, the Salvation Army, and officers and friends in his unit. From these sources, the family began to slowly piece together details that he had been on the R.M.S. Lancastria and that she had been sunk.

The British Government had imposed a news blackout concerning the loss for fear of lowering morale in Britain and hence it was only after the story had broken in the USA, that on the 26^th of July 1940, the British government finally admitted to the loss of the vessel and the heavy loss of life.

Herald of Wales

The following day, the French authorities recovered a body off Tour Plantier on the island of Noirmoutier (some 20 miles south of Saint-Nazaire), which they positively identified as Private Reginald John Phillips from his Army paybook and ID tags. However, it was not until the 24^th of February 1941 that his family was officially notified by the War Office of his death. He is buried along with 17 other servicemen from this incident in the Commonwealth War Grave Commission plot in the town cemetery of Noirmoutier. The Herald of Wales reported Reginald's death