 |
| Portrait from his book of verses |
His father described Colwyn thus:
“A born soldier, from the moment he decided whilst still at Eton to make the army his profession he was keen to do his work well and master every branch of it.”
Colwyn attended The Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards Regiment on 6th October 1908. Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 30th July 1909, in June 1911, Captain Philipps led the Escort for the return of King George V and Queen Mary from Windsor, the week after the Coronation.
Colwyn Philipps arrived in France on 1 November 1914 and was at the front three days later, where he immediately had his first taste of battle.
He wrote about the experience:
“We did no good at all, never fired, but were simply a target for the German big guns; we were very lucky in having only half a dozen casualties. I expected to be frightened, or thrilled, or flurried; as a matter of fact I was bored to tears. The only interesting thing was to watch the German shells burning a large farm a hundred yards behind us. We sat in the trenches for forty-eight hours.”
Colwyn was promoted to the rank of Temporary Captain in February 1915 and volunteered to be attached to the Foot Guards at the front (his transfer came through the day after his death).
Colwyn Philipps was killed during the Second Battle of Ypres at the Battle of Frezenberg, near Ypres on 13th May 1915. His body was never found but he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres on Panel 3.
 |
| illustration by William Barnes Wollen RI ROI (6 October 1857–28 March 1936) |
The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22nd April – 25th May 1915 for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres was fought the previous autumn. The Second Battle of Ypres saw the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front.
Like Julian Grenfell, Colwyn was a professional soldier who also wrote poetry. When his kit was sent home to his parents, the verse entitled “Release” was found in his notebook. An anthology of his poetry was published posthumously by his family.
“I Love” by Colwyn Philipps
I love thee as I love the holiest things,
Like perfect poetry and angels’ wings,
And cleanliness, and sacred motherhood,
And all things simple, sweetly pure, and good.
I love thee as I love a little child,
And calves and kittens, and all things soft and mild:
Things that I want to cuddle and to kiss,
And stroke and play with: dear, I love like this.
And, best of all, I love thee as a friend,
O fellow seeker of a mutual end!
“Release”
THERE is a healing magic in the night,
The breeze blows cleaner than it did by day,
Forgot the fever of the fuller light,
And sorrow sinks insensibly away
As if some saint a cool white hand did lay
Upon the brow, and calm the restless brain.
The moon looks down with pale unpassioned ray
Sufficient for the hour is its pain.
Be still and feel the night that hides away earth's stain.
Be still and loose the sense of God in you,
Be still and send your soul into the all,
The vasty distance where the stars shine blue,
No longer antlike on the earth to crawl.
Released from time and sense of great or small,
Float on the pinions of the Night-Queen's wings ;
Soar till the swift inevitable fall
Will drag you back into all the world's small things ;
Yet for an hour be one with all escaped things.
COLWYN PHILIPPS.*
*Found in his note-book when his kit came home.
Sources: Find my Past, Wikipedia and
https://archive.org/stream/museinarmscollec00osbouoft/museinarmscollec00osbouoft_djvu.txt
https://warpoets.org.uk/worldwar1/poets-and-poetry/colwyn-erasmus-arnold-philipps/
Verses by Philipps, Colwyn Erasmus Arnold, 1888-1915 (Smith Elder & Co., London, 1915)
https://archive.org/details/versesphil00philiala
https://archive.org/details/versesphil00philiala/page/x/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/versesphil00philiala/page/88
https://archive.org/details/versesphil00philiala/page/vi
