Captain Philip Aubrey Hill was the only son of Dr Philip E Hill, who had been a colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was a well-known figure in Crickhowell. Philip A Hill was born on 15 December 1873 and the 1881 census shows him at the family home at Latham House, High Street, Crickhowell, with his father, his mother Gertrude M Hill and older sister Gertrude A Hill as well as a governess and two servants.
By the time of the 1891 census Philip, now aged 17, was a boarder at Uppingham School, in Rutland. His military records reveal that he subsequently went to university at Caius College, Cambridge, and while there he was a corporal in the Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers. The 1901 census shows him working as an assistant teacher at a grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire and in 1902 he married Ethel Grace Sadler in Aston, Warwickshire. By 1911 the couple were living in Beckenham, near Bromley, Kent, where Philip was head of St Andrew’s Boys Preparatory School. Listed with them on the census was their seven-year-old son Philip Hurst Picton Hill.
Philip Aubrey Hill signed on for a commission in the territorial force in September 1914, at which time he gave his address as Latham House, Crickhowell. Signing to certify his moral character was Rev H P Somerset, the rector of Crickhowell, a long standing friend of the family. Philip A Hill started as a Lieutenant in the Brecknock Battalion of the South Wales Borderers. Like many men in the territorial force, normally expected to serve in a home defence role, he very soon signed a form agreeing to be deployed to combat overseas. On 23 March 1917 he was one of three officers from the Brecknocks who were mentioned in despatches for gallantry in giving assistance to the crews of four schooners which were in peril during a storm off Dale, Pembrokeshire, in November 1916. By that point he had received a temporary promotion to the rank of captain.
Philip Hill was killed in action on 23 April 1917 while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers in France. His death is recorded in the official war history of the regiment which describes an action at Monchy le Preux, near Arras. Captain Hill was wounded in the initial advance but remained with his unit. Later, as they were digging in at their new position, he was killed by a sniper.
His death was reported in the Brecon County Times of 3 May 1917 which noted that he died on his wedding anniversary and said he was a popular man whose death would be widely mourned. On 24 May 1917 the paper reported that St Edmunds Church was crowded for a memorial service for him held the previous Friday at which Rev Somerset officated. Philip Aubrey Hill was 43 and is commemorated at the Arras Memorial.
Mark Cottle