Eulogy for Norman Henry Phillips

Mary’s Church, Acton, Cheshire

Tuesday 22 June 2021

Norman Phillips passed away on 20 May in the ninety-second year of his age. Most if not all will have known him from very different if complementary perspectives on his long, successful and worthy life.

Some are family, grieving the loss of a dearly beloved father, grandfather or cousin. Some will have known him for his long and devoted service to this magnificent church as warden and regular worshipper; it is indeed fitting that he is to be laid to rest alongside Ruthie, his adored wife who was instrumental in extending the church graveyard. Some may have known him from his time at Wilsons Brewery in East Manchester, an employment he took up after regular service in one of the best Artillery Regiments in the Army.

And others such as I will remember Norman for his long, loyal and valued service to the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry which both he and later I had the honour to command. I expect the title of our old unit might puzzle some so here follows the briefest of historical summaries.

County Yeomanry units were formed as volunteer cavalry in the late eighteenth century in response to the perceived threat of invasion by our old friend Napoleon Bonaparte. In Lancashire, the County Palatine of which the reigning Sovereign is always Duke, we go back to 1798. Apart from one semi-comic incident at Fishguard in 1797, the Yeomanry were never called out to repel the French: on that occasion, an outfit called the Legion Noir surrendered apparently fearing that the local womenfolk in red shawls and black hats were the military. Maybe they would have been even more afraid had they known the real truth! In 1834 the title Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry was conferred by William IV on the combined Lancashire cavalry volunteers and the unit remained so named until 1992 serving in the Boer and both World Wars.

Norman joined the Regiment in 1960 having by then begun his career at the brewery: for his first eight years they were equipped with armoured cars, Dingos then Ferrets and in 1967 he was appointed commanding officer. Shortly afterwards began a most difficult five years of gradual reduction, provisional disbandment and eventual resurrection all within Norman’s tour of duty. In a series of salami slices, a proud and distinguished regiment of over 200 volunteers was reduced to an unfunded cadre of eight men all told.

Although this was all before my time, those in the unit who had lived through the turmoil had nothing but the highest praise for the way in which Norman coped; his steely determination to survive clothed in masterful diplomacy and charm which so many admired: you can read all about it in the Regimental history “Chain Mail” by John Brereton. But without doubt Norman’s master stroke was when a new government revived the Territorial Army he chose to remain as a full regiment rather than be reduced to a better equipped but smaller formation. This ensured a further twenty-five years existence making the DLOY the longest serving Yeomanry regiment in the Army.

Noman was always immensely proud of his unit and once he had handed over to a Regular successor in 1972 busied himself with setting up a proper Regimental Museum and running the Red Rose Club. The latter has a long and distinguished history since its formation in 1887, at one point having as members no fewer than two dukes, four earls and four baronets although in those days the membership extended to all of the volunteer units in the county. Aficionados can look up the Museum and Club in the online DLOY Archives, a project which had Norman’s enthusiastic support. In addition, Norman was a Regimental Trustee for over forty years giving wise advice on caring for the Regiment’s silver and paintings as well as using the funds to benefit our own soldiers. It may surprise some that the DLOY sent volunteers to both Iraq wars as well as the Afghanistan campaign and Norman was always keen to ensure that our yeomen were looked after as well as possible.

What I have said about Norman comes from a very specific angle I know, but each of us is looking at the man and his legacy as if seeing that light through different panes of a lantern. I got to know Norman thanks to the TA and it was a very great blessing indeed. He and Ruthie were kindness itself; generous hosts; wise in advice; slow to chide. I learned a lot from each of them, not least by the example they set in how to live and, in Norman’s case how to die. It has been the greatest honour to be able to pay tribute to an officer and gentleman upon whom I looked as an honorary godfather.

May you rest in peace, Norman and long in all our hearts.

Martin Steiger

22 June 2021

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