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apothecary at Hay. Two years later, in 1778, he was a house-pupil to the famed John Hunter, Surgeon-Extraordinary to George III. Bibliophiles are more likely to remember Hunter's elder brother William, who bequeathed his collections3 (forming the Hunterian Museum and Library) to Glasgow University. Phillips is reported to have 'passed as full surgeon' at the first attempt. In 1780, for two years, he saw naval service as a surgeon's mate and later surgeon, crossing the Atlantic and calling on military stations along the St Lawrence. On his return, in 1782, he lost no time in becoming a servant of the East India Company in a medical capacity, serving initially at Calcutta with the Artillery. Promotion to full surgeon rank came in 1794. A brief interlude inspecting hospitals in Botany Bay, Australia, in 1796, allowed him the opportunity to visit China on his return journey to India. In 1798 he sailed home on sick leave with a liver complaint. The voyage held some drama, being interrupted by the attentions of a privateer in the Bay of Biscay and resulting in his temporary detention in France. At home he married the daughter of the Rector of Cusop, near Hay, and returned with her to Calcutta in 1802, now as Superintending Surgeon. The second tour of duty with the East India Company is when he was most involved in military action, and here, as in earlier naval activity, he displayed great compassion. At the Siege of Kalunga, for example, he treated the injured 'as they fell' rather than subject them to 'the pain of removal'. His final honour before leaving India for good was his election to membership of the Calcutta Medical Board. He retired, a rich man, to 5 Brunswick Square, London. A substantial pension supplemented the capital he had built up in India by the customary practice of private transactions, both professional and commercial. Virtually throughout the period of his Indian service the scholarly Asiatic Society of Bengal was in being, nominally founded by Warren Hastings and expertly advised by Phillips's fellow London-Welshman, Sir William Jones, the philologist, who arrived in India a year after Phillips in 1783 to become Judge of the Supreme Court at Fort William. It is not known if Phillips had any regular contact with the Bengal Society, but he certainly attended meetings of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and he was a frequent visitor to the London College of Surgeons, where indeed he was recognised eventually as 'Father' of the College. Such attachments, if exemplary, were not exactly unusual. On a more personal level, his benevolent dealings with distant family members, friends, colleagues and even strangers (Polish and Hungarian refugees) are recorded. But if, at an early point in his retirement, one were to anticipate a likely avenue for the exercise of his benefactions on a larger, and perhaps institutional scale, it would not be unreasonable to think of medical or even East India Company affairs. What in fact transpired was that he developed what can only be termed an obsession for the purchase and distribution of books on a massive scale. 3 Seymour de Ricci, English collectors of Books and Manuscripts and their marks of owner- ship (1930) 53.