View source for Jack Phillips (wireless operator)

{{Short description|RMS Titanic wireless operator (1887–1912)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{About|the wireless operator aboard RMS ''Titanic''|other people with the same name|Jack Phillips (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jack Phillips
| image              = Jack George Phillips.jpg
| caption            = Phillips, {{circa|1912}}, in his Marconi uniform
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1887|04|11|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Farncombe]], Surrey, England<ref name=ET />
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1912|04|15|1887|04|11}}
| death_place        = [[North Atlantic Ocean]]
| resting_place      = 
| occupation         = Wireless telegraphist
| employer           = [[Marconi Company]]
| known_for          = Senior wireless operator aboard RMS ''Titanic''
}}

'''John George''' "'''Jack'''" '''Phillips''' (11 April 1887 – 15 April 1912) was a British sailor and the senior [[Wireless telegraphy|wireless]] operator aboard the ''[[Titanic]]'' during her [[Sinking of the Titanic|ill-fated maiden voyage]] in April 1912.

Before the collision with the iceberg, Phillips and his assistant, [[Harold Bride]], had acknowledged and passed along several ice warnings to the bridge. As the ship sank, Phillips did his utmost to contact other ships for assistance and coordinated a successful rescue effort with {{RMS|Carpathia}}. He did not survive the sinking and his body, if recovered, was not identified.

==Early life==
Phillips was born on 11 April 1887 in [[Farncombe]], Surrey.<ref name="Farncombe">{{cite web|url= https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/places/surrey/waverley/godalming/phillips/ |access-date= 3 January 2025 |work=Godalming Museum|publisher=Exploring Surrey's Past|date=2013|title=John George (Jack) Phillips, (1887 – 1912)}}</ref> The son of George Alfred Phillips, a [[draper]] and Ann Phillips (née Sanders), Phillips' family originally came from [[Trowbridge]], Wiltshire, from a lineage of [[Weaving|weavers]], but moved to Farncombe around 1883.<ref name="Farncombe"/> Phillips lived with his five siblings, of whom only two twin sisters survived to adulthood, above a draper's shop – Gammons – which his father managed in Farncombe Street.<ref name="Farncombe"/> Educated at a private school on Hare Lane, then St John Street School, Phillips sang as a choirboy at St John the Evangelist – Farncombe's church.<ref name="Farncombe"/>

He finished school in 1902 and began working at the Godalming post office, where he learned [[telegraphy]]. He started training to work in [[wireless]] for the [[Marconi Company]] in March 1906, in [[Seaforth, Merseyside|Seaforth]], and graduated five months later in August. Phillips's first assignment was on the [[White Star Line]] ship {{RMS|Teutonic||2}}. He later worked on board [[Cunard Line|Cunard]]'s {{RMS|Campania||2}}; the [[Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers|Allan Line]]'s ''Corsican'', ''Pretorian'' and {{RMS|Victorian||2}}; and then Cunard's {{RMS|Lusitania||2}} and {{RMS|Mauretania|1906|2}}. In May 1908, he was assigned to the Marconi station outside [[Clifden]], Ireland, where he worked until 1911, when he was assigned to the {{RMS|Adriatic|1906|2}} and later, in early 1912, to the {{RMS|Oceanic|1899|2}}.

==RMS ''Titanic''==
[[File:Harold Bride and Jack Phillips - RMS Titanic wireless operators.jpg|thumb|left|Phillips (left) with fellow unidentified wireless officer aboard ''RMS Adriatic''; photograph taken by [[Francis Browne]], 1911]]

In March 1912, Phillips was sent to [[Belfast]], Ireland, to be the senior wireless operator on board ''Titanic'' for her maiden voyage. He was joined by junior wireless operator [[Harold Bride]].<ref name="Harold Bride">{{cite news|title=Wireless Man of Titanic Describes Wreck of Vessel|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1912-04-19/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1836&index=0&rows=20&words=Belfast+Titanic&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=Titanic+Belfast&y=12&x=16&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|access-date=18 May 2015|newspaper=The Washington Times|date=April 19, 1912}}</ref> Stories have appeared that Phillips knew Bride before ''Titanic'', but Bride insisted they had never met before Belfast.<ref name="ET">[http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/john-george-phillips.html "Mr. John George Phillips"] (2014) ''[[Encyclopedia Titanica]]'' (ref: #2051, accessed 1 March 2014)</ref> ''Titanic'' sailed for [[New York City]], United States, from [[Southampton]], England, on 10 April 1912, and during the voyage Phillips and Bride transmitted passengers' personal messages and received [[iceberg]] warnings and other navigational information from other ships. Phillips celebrated his 25th birthday the day after the voyage began.

On the evening of 14 April, in the wireless room on the boat [[Deck (ship)|deck]], Phillips was sending messages to [[Cape Race]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages that had accumulated when the wireless had broken down the day before.<ref name="Harold Bride" /> Bride was asleep in the adjoining cabin, intending to relieve Phillips at midnight, two hours early. Shortly after 21:30, Phillips received an ice warning from the [[steamship]] ''Mesaba'' reporting [[drift ice|drifting ice]], a large number of icebergs, and an ice field directly in ''Titanic''{{'}}s path in the area of the [[Grand Banks of Newfoundland]]. Phillips acknowledged ''Mesaba''{{'}}s warning and continued to transmit messages to Cape Race. The wireless operator on the {{SS|Mesaba|1898|2}}, waited for Phillips to report that he had given the report to the [[Titanic navigation bridge|bridge]], but Phillips continued working Cape Race.

At 22:55, Phillips was again interrupted by another ship, this time the {{SS|Californian}}. Cyril Evans, the only wireless operator on board the ''Californian'', was reporting that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. ''Californian''{{'}}s relative proximity, and the fact that both Evans and Phillips were using [[Spark-gap transmitter|spark-gap wireless sets]] whose signals bled across the spectrum and were impossible to tune out, meant that Evans's signal was strong and loud in Phillips's ears, while the signals from Cape Race were faint to Phillips and inaudible to Evans. Phillips quickly sent back, "Keep out; shut up, I'm working Cape Race", and continued communicating with Cape Race, while Evans listened a while longer before going to bed for the night.

Though some have argued that that these two communications led to the failure of the iceberg being spotted, several ice warnings from other ships had already been received and communicated to Captain [[Edward Smith (sea captain)|Edward Smith]] on the bridge – including an earlier one from the ''Californian'' – so he was aware that there was ice in the area before the warnings of ''Mesaba'' and ''Californian'' came in, and two lookouts were posted for that night. Additionally, Phillips' supposedly dismissive language was part of the straight jargon used by wireless operators and Evans did not ask Phillips to forward the ''Californian''{{'}}s position to the bridge as it was not an official ice warning; at the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry, Evans told the [[John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey|Viscount Mersey]] that the comment was not meant as and nor perceived as an insult:<ref>{{cite web |title=British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry, Day 8: Testimony of Cyril F. Evans |url=https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq08Evans01.php |website=[[Encyclopedia Titanica]] |access-date=30 December 2024}}</ref>

<blockquote>{{dialogue
|mersey=Lord Mersey
|evans=Evans
|mersey|In ordinary Marconi practice is that a common thing to be asked?
|evans|Yes. And you do not take it as an insult or anything like that.
}}</blockquote>

Phillips, along with Bride, had also spent most of the night before repairing the wireless machine, which had broken down the day before, against [[Marconi Company]] guidelines which stated that operators should not repair the machine lest they get further damaged. Phillips' repairs made it possible to coordinate a rescue effort for survivors after the ship sank.

''Titanic'' struck an iceberg at 23:40 that night and began sinking. Bride had woken up and begun getting ready to relieve Phillips when Captain [[Edward Smith (sea captain)|Edward Smith]] entered the wireless room and told Phillips to prepare to send out a [[distress signal]]. Shortly after midnight, Captain Smith came in again and told them to send out the call for assistance and gave them ''Titanic''{{'}}s estimated position. Phillips began sending out the distress signal, code [[CQD]], while Bride took messages to Captain Smith about which ships were coming to ''Titanic''{{'}}s assistance. At one point, Bride half-jokingly told Phillips that the new call was [[SOS]] and said, "Send S.O.S., it's the new call, and it may be your last chance to send it."<ref name="Harold Bride"/><ref name="nytimes1912">{{cite news|author=Harold Bride, Surviving Wireless Operator of the Titanic|title=THRILLING STORY BY TITANIC'S SURVIVING WIRELESS MAN; Bride Tells How He and Phillips Worked and How He Finished a Stoker Who Tried to Steal Phillips's Life Belt – Ship Sank to Tune of "Autumn"|work=The New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E0DF153CE633A2575AC1A9629C946396D6CF|access-date=10 July 2010 | date=19 April 1912}}</ref> Phillips was able to contact {{RMS|Carpathia}} which headed for the scene.

After taking a quick break, Phillips returned to the wireless room and reported to Bride that the [[bow (watercraft)|forward]] part of the ship was flooded, and they should put on more clothes and [[Lifebuoy|lifebelts]]. Bride began to get ready, while Phillips went back to work on the wireless machine.

The wireless power was almost completely out shortly after 02:00, when Captain Smith arrived and told the men they had done their duty and were relieved. Bride later remembered being moved by the way Phillips continued working. While their backs were turned, a crew member (either a [[Fireman (steam engine)|stoker]] or [[Coal trimmer|trimmer]]) sneaked in and attempted to steal Phillips's lifebelt. Bride, outraged at the man's behaviour, attacked the man and might have hit him with an object. The water was beginning to flood the wireless room as they both ran out of the wireless room, leaving the motionless crewman where he fell. The men then split up, Bride heading forward and Phillips heading [[stern|aft]].<ref name="nytimes1912"/> This was the last time Bride saw Phillips.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq14Bride01.php |title=Testimony of Harold Bride at the US Inquiry |website=titanicinquiry.org}}</ref>

===Death===
Conflicting and contradictory information led to popular belief that Phillips possibly managed to make it to the overturned [[Lifeboats of the Titanic#Collapsible Engelhardt Lifeboat B (port)|Collapsible B]], which was in the charge of Second Officer Charles Lightoller, along with [[Harold Bride]] but did not last the night. In his ''[[The New York Times]]'' interview, Bride said that a man from boat B was dead, and that as he boarded ''Carpathia'', he saw that the dead man was Phillips.<ref name="nytimes1912"/> However, when testifying in the Senate Inquiry, Bride changed his story, saying that he had only been told that Phillips died on Collapsible B, and was later buried at sea from ''Carpathia'' and had not witnessed this for himself.

In his book, Colonel [[Archibald Gracie IV|Archibald Gracie]] said a body was transferred from the collapsible onto boat #12 but said that the body was definitely not that of Phillips. He reported that when speaking with [[Charles Lightoller]], the Second Officer agreed with him that the body was not Phillips. In Lightoller's testimony at the [[United States Senate inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic]], he says that Bride told him that Phillips had been aboard and died on the boat, but it is clear that Lightoller never saw this for himself. In Lightoller's 1935 autobiography, ''Titanic and Other Ships'', he writes that Phillips was aboard Collapsible B and told everyone the position of the various ships they had contacted by wireless, and when they could expect a rescue, before succumbing to the cold and dying. He also claims that Phillips' body was taken aboard Boat No. 12 at his insistence.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Herbert Lightoller |date=1935 |chapter=The Rescue |title=Titanic and Other Ships |publisher=London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson |chapter-url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301011h.html#ch35 |access-date=10 July 2010}}</ref>

It is clear from Gracie and other 1912 evidence that the man on the upturned collapsible who called out the names of approaching ships was Harold Bride, not Jack Phillips, as Lightoller thought in 1935. Lightoller's 1912 testimony contradicts his 1935 statements that he saw Phillips aboard B and that the body taken off the boat was Phillips. Salon Steward Thomas Whiteley may have been Bride's source for the story; in a press interview, Whiteley claimed that Phillips had been aboard the collapsible, died and was taken aboard ''Carpathia.'' As no other witness in 1912 claimed Phillips' body was recovered, and his name was never mentioned by any source aboard ''Carpathia'' as being one of the four bodies buried at sea, it is possible that Whiteley was simply mistaken in his identification, or that Phillips was aboard Collapsible B his but body was not recovered.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wormstedt.com/GeorgeBehe/Page13.htm |title=The Fate of Jack Phillips |work=George Behe's "Titanic" Tidbits}}</ref><ref name="Harmes">{{cite book |last=Fitch |first=Tad |date=2012 |title=On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUqoAwAAQBAJ&dq=titanic+jack+phillips+buried+sea+of+glass&pg=PT881 |location=[[Lanham, Maryland]] |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |page=363 |isbn= 978-1442232853 |access-date=11 April 2021 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| caption_align = center
| total_width = 440
| image1 = Jack Phillips' grave, Farncombe, Surrey, United Kingdom.jpg
| caption1 = Jack Phillips memorial, Nightingale Cemetery, [[Farncombe]]
| image2 = Phillips Memorial Cloister, Godalming - geograph-1980712-by-Ian-Taylor.jpg
| caption2 = Phillips Memorial Cloister, [[Church of St Peter & St Paul, Godalming]]
}}

There are memorials to Phillips in Nightingale Cemetery, [[Farncombe]] and in the Phillips Memorial Cloister, part of the Phillips Memorial Ground, which lies to the north of the [[Church of St Peter & St Paul, Godalming]]. The cloister was designed by architect [[Hugh Thackeray Turner]] while the gardens inside and around it was designed by horticulturist [[Gertrude Jekyll]]. In 2012, marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking, the Cloister and grounds were renovated.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Phillips Memorial Park, Godalming |url=https://www.waverley.gov.uk/Services/Greenspaces-leisure-and-things-to-do/Greenspaces-in-Waverley/Key-Sites/The-Phillips-Memorial-Park-Godalming |website=Waverley Borough Council |access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref>

On 11 April 2017, on what would have been his 130th birthday, the Godalming Town Council unveiled a [[blue plaque]] at Phillips' birthplace.<ref>{{cite press release |title=PRESS RELEASE For immediate release “BLUE PLAQUE FOR JACK” |url=https://godalming-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/22.-Blue-Plaque-for-Jack-5-April-2017-SG.pdf |website=Godalming Town Council |access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Yip |first1=Ann |title=The rarely told story of Jack Phillips, the Titanic hero from Surrey |url=https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/rarely-told-story-jack-phillips-14551323 |access-date=31 December 2024 |work=Surrey Live |date=21 April 2018}}</ref>

==Portrayals==
*[[Kenneth Griffith]] (1958) – ''[[A Night to Remember (1958 film)|A Night to Remember]]'' (Film)
* Matt Hill (1996) – ''[[Titanic (1996 miniseries)|Titanic]]'' (TV miniseries)
* [[Gregory Cooke]] (1997) – ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'' (Film)
* Justin Shaw (2003) – ''[[Ghosts of the Abyss]]'' (Documentary)
* Mark James Fernandes (2006) – ''[[Seconds from Disaster]]'' (TV series; Season 3, Episode 1: Titanic)
* [[Karl Davies]] (2008) — ''The Unsinkable Titanic'' (Documentary)
* Thomas Lynskey (2012) – ''The Last Signals'' (Independent film)

== See also ==

* [[Titanic navigation bridge]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite web|author1=Hyder, Jemma|author2=Inger Sheil|title=John George Phillips|work=On Watch: The Deck Officers and Wireless Operators of the R.M.S. Titanic|url=http://www.nautical-papers.com/onwatch/phillips/phillips.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021003045317/http://www.nautical-papers.com/onwatch/phillips/phillips.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 October 2002|access-date=25 July 2005}}
*{{cite web|author1=Lane, Allison|author2=Stephenson, Parks|title=Mr John George Phillips|publisher=[[Encyclopedia Titanica]]|url=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/john-george-phillips.html|access-date=25 July 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924061423/http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/john-george-phillips.html|archive-date=24 September 2015|df=dmy-all}}
*{{cite book|author=Lynch, Don|title=Titanic: An Illustrated History|publisher=Hyperion|year=1993| isbn=0-7868-8147-X}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Jack Phillips}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130121022430/http://titanic-titanic.com/titanic_memorial-john_phillips.shtml John Phillips' Memorial] at Titanic-Titanic.com
*[http://www.weyriver.co.uk/theriver/places_3_godalming.htm#Phillips Jack Phillips & The Titanic] – (Non-commercial site) information and images about Jack Phillips and the memorial to him

{{RMS Titanic}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Jack}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1912 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths on the RMS Titanic]]
[[Category:English radio people]]
[[Category:Telegraphists]]
[[Category:People from Godalming]]
[[Category:20th-century English people]]