Bill Phillips was from a Naval family. His father, Clarence, arrived in Australia in 1913 on “loan’ from the British Navy. He remained in Australia and became a Master at Arms with the Navy based in Victoria during the First World War.
He remained with the Navy until the mid-1920’s. By 1920 the family had relocated to the suburb of Lidcombe in Sydney where Bill Phillips was born that year.
The Phillips family moved to the Liverpool district by the early 1930’s and remained there until just before the Second World War. It is most likely that it was here that a young Bill Phillips learned to play rugby league as by 1937 he had moved to Armidale where he attended Teachers College.
Bill’s family had moved back to the property at Dalley and Nicholas Sts Lidcombe by 1939. Interestingly, the locality these days is the home of Phillips Park. It is not known whether the naming of the Park is connected to the Phillips family.
