LAST DIGGER

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 35, 13 February 1929, Page 2

LAST DIGGER

RETURN FROM FRANCE An Australian soldier, in civilian clothes, who arrived' at Victoria Station, London, on January 2d, has made history. Hb was Major Phillips, who finally left Franco, being the last Australian on active service a « a» Digger. Major Phillips served in the war and then spent seven years as Australian officer on the War Graves Commission. Ho is known to thousands of Australians, particularly to post-war of whom he and Mrs Phillips enter, tained at their bungalow at Albert, where they lived for seven yeais, near the famous church, which the Carmans shattered.

Major Phillips played an important part in the bunding ot the Cemeteries where Australian soldiers are buried. He saw thousands of bodf.es recovered, and directed operation a which resulted in the shell-swept battlefields becoming beautifully laid-out cemeteries. Ho was instrumental in identifying many soldiers who had been posted as missing for years, and returning their identification discs to relatives in Australia.

Mrs Phillips, who was practically the only British woman living on the battlefields, says that she is over, jqyed to return to England and to once, again have English food.