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193:, who had also accompanied the expedition. Pepys recorded that Phillips had 'views on many topics, including the improvement of navigation skills, the need to study the world's currents, the importance of mathematics in the educational curriculum of children intended for careers at sea, the simplification of the rigging of ships, and the needlessness of discovering the means of calculating longitude, which he believed would only bring about miscarriages at sea.'
234:, who wrote to Lord Dartmouth praising the character and conduct of 'Honest Tom Phillips' Phillips also carried out a number of paintings of Irish towns and harbours in a variety of mediums including pencil, pen and ink, and colourwash. They are significant in showing the influence of Dutch landscapists then at work in England, as well as being a useful topographical record of Irish towns in the late seventeenth century.
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at
Guernsey Road in the Channel Islands on 22 November 1693. His body was brought back to Portsmouth and he was buried on 29 November with military honours in the church. His son Thomas received an allowance to study engineering, whilst his widow, Frances sought payment of his arrears of pay and a
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and at the channel ports. He reported back to his patron
Dartmouth that he had 'taken particular observations of all things that can in any way be serviceable to us, especially in the affairs of the artillery' Having gained valuable knowledge of the continental styles of fortification, Phillips was
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For his surveys, he drew up meticulous plans of key strategic locations. He drafted a report entitled 'Rules, orders and directions for regulating the office of ordnance in
Ireland' and together with Francis Povey carried out a survey of the ordnance and arms remaining in the king's stores in
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loaded with explosives. He brought it inshore on 19 November, intending to use it to reduce the town to ashes. The ship ran aground and exploded before it could reach the harbour, but the blast succeeded in damaging hundreds of houses and bringing down the port's sea wall.
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to carry out a survey of the existing harbours and their fortifications, draw up plans of their designs and give advice on repairs. He issued his report in 1685, in which he criticised the existing defences and made recommendations for improvements costing some £554,000.
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ordered to inspect the defences of
Portsmouth, design and prepare any new works he thought necessary, and then oversee their construction. A further commission came in August that year, when he was sent to
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in 1687 for the army's summer exercises, and in
December was commissioned captain of the company of miners in Lord Dartmouth's ordnance regiment. Phillips was in Portsmouth during the
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Having received good references from his patrons, Phillips was appointed second engineer in
December 1685, a post with an annual salary of £250. He was based at the
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dismissed
Phillips from the post of second engineer. He returned to work on Portsmouth's fortifications in July 1690, receiving commendations for his diligence from
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officer and engineer who worked with some of the leading naval figures of his period, and was involved in military operations against the French during the
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and was ordered to destroy St Malo. Phillips directed the bomb vessels during the opening three-day-long bombardment, before taking charge of a 300-ton
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Phillips's pay was in arrears again by 1692, causing him significant financial difficulties. He was sent in August with a squadron to reconnoitre the
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Phillips escaped and returned to the fleet, but may have been injured in the escapade. He died three days later aboard Benbow's
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The revolution caused his patron, Lord
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297:(right). The three had been important figures in British fleet operations against the north coast of France during 1692–93.
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Phillips returned to
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in 1683. He dutifully recorded the expedition's success in a series of drawings. During this time, he fell in with
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in November 1688, and wrote to Dartmouth to report on the strength of the Dutch fleet which had brought
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in 1689 on the pretext that he was owed significant arrears of salary. The expedition's commander
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in 1679–80, where he surveyed and drew up plans of the Islands from a tactical perspective.
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and achieved recognition of his abilities as a military engineer. He was dispatched to the
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Thomas Phillips at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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pension out of the Welsh revenue to support five children.
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Murray's full portrait. Alongside Phillips (left) are
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