Phillip Anthony, who died on 25 February 1984, joined the 7th Hussars in Luneburg in early 1950 as one of four Regular Officers from the same RMAS intake.
He soon became established as a character in ‘A’ Squadron, earning his longstanding nickname of “The Shite Hawk”. After service with the Worcester Hussars, he rejoined the Regiment in Hong Kong in early 1957 and contributed greatly to the efficiency of the Regiment’s return to Tidworth via the Cape during the Suez Crisis.
In late 1958 he was appointed Adjutant of the newly formed Queen’s Own Hussars.
At this time the Regiment already had ‘A’ Squadron at Warminster and ‘C’ Squadron was preparing for an operational tour in Aden. Besides coping with their outside deployments, Phillip was the very capable architect of the Guidon Presentation Parade in March 1959, also drawing up Standing Orders, SOPs and Dress Regulations for the Regiment which laid the foundation for those in force today.
In June 1960 he organised the move of the Regiment to Munster, less ‘C’ Squadron which did not return from Aden till the autumn. In no time at all the Regiment established its name in the 6th Infantry Brigade.
This period in Phillip’s life also covered the forming of Home Headquarters and the forging of links with Warwickshire and Worcestershire and QOWWY in our new recruiting area. Rarely has an Adjutant in peacetime had so many burdens to shoulder during his appointment.
After a very successful tour with the Oxford University OTC, where he met and married his wife Sue, then an Officer Cadet under his charge, he returned to Command ‘C’ Squadron at Detmold and in Catterick.
In early 1968 he became Second in Command at Maresfield, again at a time of turmoil when ‘A’ and ‘C’ Squadrons were reforming to go to the Far East for 2 years, and ‘B’ Squadron to Cyprus.
When RHQ deployed to Singapore, Phillip was left to the unglamorous but vital job of running the Rear Party at Maresfield. It would have been so easy to have sat back and relaxed but he literally slaved for 18 months, almost singlehanded.
His task also included the initial stage of the Regiments conversion to Chieftain, which was most successfully achieved in less than six months in the UK and BAOR. He was then appointed Commanding Officer of the Birmingham University OTC and most sadly missed promotion to Substantive Lieutenant Colonel by the narrowest of margins.
Phillip had a great love for, and knowledge of, the Mess Silver and Paintings and this widened into a general interest in the history of the Regiment. Of his generation, there was no more reliable guide to it. It was fitting, therefore, that he should have become early on a member of the Museum Committee. It is to his vision and insistence more than to anyone else’s that the major development in the Lord Leycester Hospital was ever undertaken.
Everything that Phillip devoted himself to in the Regiment has prospered and he was utterly selfless in his determination to get things right, and in their simplest form. His warm and generous personality was sometimes shielded by a dry and acerbic wit: he did not suffer fools but was always ready to guide, advise, and forgive those not blessed with a mind as acute as his own.
It is sad that he could not have lived to see the Tercentenary Celebrations of the Regiment he served so well for nearly thirty-five years. So much of what he started a quarter of a century ago flourishes today.
