Looking commanding here in the uniform of the Royal
Regiment of Artillery, William Phillips was described by one
contemporary as ‘honest, industrious and irascible’. An able soldier, in
1756 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir John Ligonier,
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance (later Commander-in-Chief of the
British Forces in Germany). With Ligonier’s influence, he advanced over
the heads of fellow officers who had greater seniority.
During
the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), Phillips was posted to Germany in
command of a brigade of British artillery attached to the army of Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick. His bold and innovative deployment of the
artillery made a major contribution to the Allied victories of Minden
(1759) and Warburg (1760). On the conclusion of the war, Phillips was
posted to Woolwich in command of a company of artillery for a period. It
must have been then that he sat to Cotes for this portrait.Read about his career in the American Revolution here
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