Thomas Phillips (educational benefactor)

Thomas Phillips (6 July 1760 – 30 June 1851), was an educational philanthropist, a slave owner,[1][2] a major donor to St David's College, Lampeter, and the founder of Llandovery College in Wales.[3]

Phillips had been born in London, within the sound of Bow Bells, but to parents from Llandegley, Radnorshire.[4] He completed part of his education in Wales and later credited his long life to his hill-climbing youth.[5] He became apprenticed to an apothecary at Hay-on-Wye, possibly Mr Powell, before becoming a pupil of the celebrated London surgeon John Hunter of Jermyn Street. He qualified as a surgeon in 1780 and then joined the Royal Navy serving for two years. He travelled as surgeon's mate on the frigate Danae, before visiting military outposts on the Saint Lawrence, including Montreal and Quebec as surgeon on the Hind.[6] After leaving the navy, he qualified as a member of the Company of Surgeons and joined the East India Company. He spent much of his career in India, carrying on business as well as working as a surgeon. In 1796, he became inspector of hospitals in Botany Bay, Australia.[5] From there, he went on to China, Penang, Chennai and Kolkata.[7] In 1798, he sailed home on sick leave; his ship was captured by a French privateer resulting in his temporary detention in Bordeaux.[7]

In 1800, he married Althea Edwards, daughter of the rector of Cusop, Herefordshire; they had no children together.[5] Returning to India, he became Superintending Surgeon and a member of the Bengal Medical Board.[5] He travelled to Nepal with the campaign against the Gurkhas under Major-General Robert "Rollicking Rollo" Gillespie. He and his assistant cared for the injured as they fell, evidently using a type of mobile field-hospital and dressing-station.[4] Phillips also started to set up some small libraries in mess rooms in order to further the education of soldiers serving in India. He bought a sugar plantation on the island of St Vincent for £40 000, and, he returned to London, a rich man, in 1817. Following the abolition of slavery, he was awarded £4737 8s 6d in compensation for the loss of 167 enslaved people.[2]

  1. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slave-ownership". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Details of Claim | Legacies of British Slave-ownership". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. ^ Llandovery College
  4. ^ a b UWTSD, Web Development Team -. "Biography of Thomas Phillips - University of Wales Trinity Saint David". www.uwtsd.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d "Phillips, Thomas (1760–1851), philanthropist and surgeon | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22175. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ The Founders' Library, University of Wales, Lampeter : bibliographical and contextual studies : essays in memory of Robin Rider. Rider, Robin, 1931-1995., Marx, C. William. Lampeter: Trivium. 1997. ISBN 0905285581. OCLC 37864371.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ a b "The Gentleman's magazine. ser.2 v.36 1851". HathiTrust. pp. 302 v. Retrieved 8 April 2020.