Bailey, PG
(1886 - 1917)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
2nd September 1886
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1899 - 1905
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Fairlawn, 49 Alleyn Park, West Dulwich
REGIMENT
Royal Field Artillery
FINAL RANK:
Major
DATE OF DEATH:
26th April 1917
AGE AT DEATH:
30
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Arras
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Roclincourt Valley Cemetery I C 3
Major Philip Gerald Bailey
He was born on September 2nd 1886 in Bognor, Sussex, the fifth of six sons of medical doctor James Bailey and his wife, Louisa, of whom the three youngest would go on to attend the College. Philip’s start at Dulwich came just weeks after the death of his father. After leaving he went on to Clare College, Cambridge, gaining a first-class degree in Natural Sciences, before subsequently taking a diploma in Agriculture and engaging in postgraduate research, with several of his papers being published in scientific journals. One particular area of interest for him was the inheritance of wool characteristics in sheep, and it was with the intention of pursuing this that he sailed to Australia in the summer of 1914.
He cut short this trip because of the outbreak of War and by November 1914 had taken up a commission in the Royal Field Artillery. Philip saw heavy action on the Western Front over the next two and a half years, serving in the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Loos, the Somme, Ancre and Vimy Ridge, and in the process rising through the ranks – becoming a Lieutenant in September 1915, a Captain in March 1916, and finally a Major a year after that. It was whilst serving in this capacity that he was killed near Arras on 26th April 1917. His elder brother Tom, a fellow OA, also fell in action.
