Reference
  • 2005/047
Archive collection
  • British Empire & Commonwealth
Level of description
  • Collection
Date
  • c. 1874 - 1927
Description
  • This collection contains 3 photograph albums and a loose photographic print. The content primarily consists of images taken during the Phipps' postings abroad while serving with the British Army in India (primarily the North West Frontier region of India and modern day Pakistan), Egypt, Aden, Burma (Myanmar), South Africa, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). There are also images from Shoeburyness, Plymouth, Chalfont St Giles, Charterhouse and Canterbury Cathedral, as well as family photographs from England and abroad. There are also a small number of programmes relating to military events and a newspaper cutting of an obituary. This catalogue was produced with support from the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives
Extent and medium
  • 3 volumes and 1 rolled photograph
Creator
Biographical history
  • Ramsay Weston Phipps was born 10th April 1838 at the family estate, Oaklands, near Clomnel, Tipperary, Ireland. He was the son of Pownoll Phipps, an officer in the British East India Company, and descended from a long line of military men. He attended Mr Barron's school in Stanmore, before being offered a cadetship at a preparatory school in Carshalton (1849/50), and then on to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He received his Lieutenant's commission into the Royal Artillery in August 1855 and joined the 9th Battalion in the Crimea where he took part in the Siege of Sevastopol. In 1866 he was sent to Canada to help combat the Fenian raids. From 1868-1873 Phipps was stationed in Malta, during which time he was promoted to Major. In 1874, he took command of 6th battery, 6th Brigade in Aden for two years, before joining 3rd Battery, 23rd Brigade in India. He retired in 1887 having attained the rank of Colonel. Phipps was also a military historian, his best known work being, 'The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I', a five volume work published posthumously. He died in June 1923. Charles Foskett Phipps (son of Ramsay Weston Phipps) was born in 1871 at Bath, and lived at 19 Royal Crescent. He was educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. In 1891 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. He served in India, Plymouth, Burma, and South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War. In 1912 he was serving as a Major in the North-West Frontier of India. During the Great War he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in France and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He retired from military service in 1925 having reached the rank of Colonel and died in 1931.
Access status
  • Open
Access conditions
  • none
Physical and technical
  • 3 hardbound albums containing b/w photographs and 1 b/w rolled print