By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
MOUNT Evelyn RSL lost one of its founding members with the passing of Bill Phillips last month.
Mr Phillips led a fulfilled and extraordinary life that saw him serve in two wars and raise five children.
Formally of Lilydale, Mr Phillips and his mates from the Lilydale RSL decided in 1967 to start their own RSL sub-branch in Mount Evelyn.
Mr Phillips was presented with a lifetime membership award from the RSL in September last year in honour of all his hard work and dedication to the organisation.
Mount Evelyn RSL secretary Anthony McAleer said Mr Phillips was an integral part of the RSL community in Mount Evelyn.
“For a long time Bill was a stalwart of the Mount Evelyn RSL,” he said.
“He was one of the people that were a big help when the club built their clubrooms and he was a big help fund-raising and things like that.”
“Bill was always a friendly face around the club,” Mr McAleer said.
Mr Phillips’ son Mark Phillips has fond memories of his father involving the family in his commitments to the RSL.
“Especially on Anzac Day; all the family came to support dad on Anzac Days,” Mark Phillips said.
“He led the march and organised it when we were children, it was always a really proud day for us.”
A local boy through and through, Bill Phillips was born in Lilydale in 1927, the oldest boy of 11 children and attended St Pats School in Lilydale.
Mr Phillips was just 15 years old when he enlisted to join his father in the military.
“Dad was 15 but looked older.”
“He got the enlistment papers and got his younger brother to forge their mother’s signature because she refused to sign them,” Mark said.
“It’s hard to imagine in this day and age a 15-year-old going off to war in the thick of things,” said Mr McAleer.
Mr Phillips served in New Guinea where he contracted dysentery and dengue fever and it was in the hospital that his real age was found out and he was sent back home.
He enlisted again in 1945 at 18 years and served in the Korean War in 1950 at 22 years old.
Mr Phillips held various jobs though his life, becoming an engine driver and a security guard on different occasions.
Always keen on sports, Mr Phillips won the Australian Army lightweight boxing champion in 1947 and kept up a regime of weight and boxing training until we reached his early eighties.
“He suffered ill-health all his life as a result of his war days but I thought dad was indestructible as a kid,” Mark said.
“I wouldn’t have known anyone tougher than Dad was.”
Described by Mark as a joker and a larrikin, Mr Phillips was quite a character in his younger years and maintained this in his later life.
“It became quite evident,” Mark said.
“He was very well loved at Tullamore in Montrose where he spent the last eight years of his life.”
Despite his ailing health in his later years, Mr Phillips always had time for his family and for the RSL.
“He and mum had 52 good years together and raised five children,” Mark said.
“Dad didn’t speak a great deal about the wars but spoke about his mates from the wars,” Mark said.
“In later years with his health he couldn’t come up to the RSL as much as he would like,” Mr McAleer said.
“He still received visitors from the RSL though.”
Bill Phillips passed away on 14 July, at Knox Hospital shortly after turning 88 years old.
“We are all immensely proud of what he achieved and he was very well loved,” Mark said.
