Vivian Phillipps

(Henry) Vivian Phillipps (13 April 1870, Beckenham, Kent – 16 January 1955, Leigh, Kent) was a British teacher, lawyer and Liberal politician.

Phillipps was born in Beckenham, Kent the son of Henry Mitchell Phillipps. In 1883 he went to Charterhouse School and in 1886 he travelled to Heidelberg in southern Germany to study for three years, returning fluent in German. In 1890 he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, obtaining his bachelor's degree in the modern languages tripos in 1893. In 1899 he married Agnes Ford from Edinburgh and they had a son and two daughters.

Phillipps’ first employment was as a teacher of German at Fettes College in Edinburgh. While there he wrote a text-book, A Short Sketch of German Literature for Schools, published in 1895. He left Fettes in 1905, deciding to opt for a career in the law. In 1907 he was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn and practised as a member of the Northern Circuit. From 1915 he served as a Justice of the Peace in Kent and became Vice-Chairman of the Bench in 1931. He was Chairman of the West Kent Quarter Sessions between 1933 and 1945.

A convinced Liberal, Phillipps first tried to enter Parliament at Blackpool in 1906 and then at Maidstone in both the January and December 1910 general elections. In 1918 he was the Liberal candidate at Rochdale but as a supporter of H H Asquith he was not a recipient of the Lloyd George Coalition Government coupon which went instead to his Conservative opponent Alfred Law, who won with a healthy majority of 7,847 votes.

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