Hubert Phillips
Encyclopedia
Hubert Phillips was an economist, puzzleist, bridge player and organiser, journalist, broadcaster, and an author who wrote some 70 books.
, Bruton
, and Merton College, Oxford
, where he read history and economics, taking a first class degree. He served in the British Army
with the Essex Regiment
throughout World War I
.
After the war, he became Head of the Department of Economics
at Bristol University and Head of Extra-Mural Studies 1919-24; he was Director, Liberal Research Dept 1924; Economic Advisor and Secretary, Liberal Industrial Enquiry 1924-28; Advisor to the Parliamentary Liberal Party
1926-8. He stood as a Liberal Party candidate in 1929 at Wallasey
. He joined the News Chronicle
in 1930.
Phillips was the founder and editor (1932-9) of the British Bridge World, and a pioneer of bridge organisation in England. He was a key person in setting up the first Anglo-American match (Buller
v Culbertson
). He was the devisor and co-presenter of the first ever bridge programs on television, BBC
1936. These were programs which involved discussion of pre-selected hands, displayed on boards, followed by their bidding and play by expert pairs. Some of the hands were taken from famous matches, others were devised by Phillips. After play, comparison might be made, for example, with the play on the same hand in the Beasley–Culbertson match. The series was thought to be a great success, though of course viewership was limited in those days.
As an author (the greater part of his income) he wrote on bridge, and on general knowledge, intellectual, mathematical and bridge puzzles and quizzes. Chess, he said, was his favourite game, but he wrote little on that subject. He wrote over 100 crime stories. He composed thousands of puzzles, both mathematical and inferential, and about 6000 crosswords. He was an essayist and leader-writer for the News Chronicle, and wrote for the New Statesman as 'Caliban'. He broadcast regularly on BBC radio
– on Transatlantic Quiz and its offshoot Round Britain Quiz
and later, on occasion, the Brains Trust
. In his heyday he earned a five-figure income; but in later years a fondness for drink and gaming led to a decline in his fortunes.
Phillips as a bridge writer and as an organiser was always in competition with A.E. Manning Foster, who had been a professional player since the days of auction bridge, and was the bridge correspondent of The Times
. Each of them founded a magazine (Foster's was the Bridge Magazine) and a duplicate bridge organisation (Phillips' was the National Bridge Association, founded 1933). It was not until after WWII that the two organisations were unified. He helped Terence Reese
on his first steps to becoming a professional contract bridge player, and co-authored several books with him.
Phillips donated the Hubert Phillips Bowl for the English Mixed Teams Championship. This competition has been played annually since 1937, with the exception of 1939-46, and is the only major event in the country played with aggregate scoring.
Life
Phillips was educated at Sexey's SchoolSexey's School
Sexey's School is a state boarding school in Bruton, Somerset, England that also takes some day pupils from the surrounding area. Sexey's School is named after Hugh Sexey who, in 1599, was appointed as a Royal auditor to Elizabeth I and later as a Royal auditor to James I. Sexey's Hospital was...
, Bruton
Bruton
Bruton is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the River Brue seven miles south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, ten miles north-west of Gillingham and twelve miles south-west of Frome in the South Somerset district. The town has a...
, and Merton College, Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
, where he read history and economics, taking a first class degree. He served in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
with the Essex Regiment
Essex Regiment
The Essex Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army that saw active service from 1881 to 1958. Members of the regiment were recruited from across Essex county. Its lineage is continued by the Royal Anglian Regiment.-Origins:...
throughout World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
After the war, he became Head of the Department of Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at Bristol University and Head of Extra-Mural Studies 1919-24; he was Director, Liberal Research Dept 1924; Economic Advisor and Secretary, Liberal Industrial Enquiry 1924-28; Advisor to the Parliamentary Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
1926-8. He stood as a Liberal Party candidate in 1929 at Wallasey
Wallasey (UK Parliament constituency)
Wallasey is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
. He joined the News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
in 1930.
Later career
Phillips' later career was as a journalist, broadcaster, freelance author, and organiser.Phillips was the founder and editor (1932-9) of the British Bridge World, and a pioneer of bridge organisation in England. He was a key person in setting up the first Anglo-American match (Buller
Walter Buller
Walter Lawry Buller KCMG was a New Zealand lawyer, naturalist and ornithologist.Buller was the author of A History of the Birds of New Zealand , with illustrations by John Gerrard Keulemans. In 1882 he produced the Manual of the Birds of New Zealand as a cheaper, popular alternative...
v Culbertson
Ely Culbertson
Ely Culbertson was an entreprenurial American contract bridge personality dominant during the Thirties and Forties. He played a major role in the early popularization of the game, and was widely regarded as "the man who made contract bridge"...
). He was the devisor and co-presenter of the first ever bridge programs on television, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
1936. These were programs which involved discussion of pre-selected hands, displayed on boards, followed by their bidding and play by expert pairs. Some of the hands were taken from famous matches, others were devised by Phillips. After play, comparison might be made, for example, with the play on the same hand in the Beasley–Culbertson match. The series was thought to be a great success, though of course viewership was limited in those days.
As an author (the greater part of his income) he wrote on bridge, and on general knowledge, intellectual, mathematical and bridge puzzles and quizzes. Chess, he said, was his favourite game, but he wrote little on that subject. He wrote over 100 crime stories. He composed thousands of puzzles, both mathematical and inferential, and about 6000 crosswords. He was an essayist and leader-writer for the News Chronicle, and wrote for the New Statesman as 'Caliban'. He broadcast regularly on BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
– on Transatlantic Quiz and its offshoot Round Britain Quiz
Round Britain Quiz
Round Britain Quiz is a panel game that has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 1947, making it the oldest quiz still broadcast on British radio...
and later, on occasion, the Brains Trust
Brains Trust
Brains Trust may be:* Brain Trust, US advisors* The Brains Trust, a United Kingdom radio/television programme...
. In his heyday he earned a five-figure income; but in later years a fondness for drink and gaming led to a decline in his fortunes.
Phillips as a bridge writer and as an organiser was always in competition with A.E. Manning Foster, who had been a professional player since the days of auction bridge, and was the bridge correspondent of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. Each of them founded a magazine (Foster's was the Bridge Magazine) and a duplicate bridge organisation (Phillips' was the National Bridge Association, founded 1933). It was not until after WWII that the two organisations were unified. He helped Terence Reese
Terence Reese
John Terence Reese was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields...
on his first steps to becoming a professional contract bridge player, and co-authored several books with him.
Phillips donated the Hubert Phillips Bowl for the English Mixed Teams Championship. This competition has been played annually since 1937, with the exception of 1939-46, and is the only major event in the country played with aggregate scoring.
Opinions of colleagues
- "For many years he was internationally the most eminent author of intellectual and mathematical puzzles under the pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s Caliban and Dogberry, and of cryptic crosswords."
- "He never lost his courtesy and good humour... he had a largeness of spirit that one seldom sees in this game or indeed in these times." Terence ReeseTerence ReeseJohn Terence Reese was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields...
- "Oh, yes, bridge players owe a lot to Hubert Phillips, particularly in the South [of England] where he organised and founded the English Bridge Union and the Duplicate Bridge Control Board." H. St John Ingram
A riddle by H.P.
- My first wears my second, my third might be,
- What my first would acquire if he went to sea,
- Put together my one, two, three,
- And the belle of New York is the girl for me.
Bridge
- Ely Culbertson, edited by Hubert Phillips 1932. Contract bridge blue book. Faber, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1934. You can play and laugh. Faber, London. [content is mostly derived from the author's column in the British Bridge World]
- Phillips, Hubert and Bernard Westall 1934. Two hundred hands from match play: an annotated case-book for contract bridge. De La Rue & Faber, London.
- Phillips, Hubert and Terence Reese 1937. The elements of contract. British Bridge World, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1939. Brush up your bridge. Dent, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1948. Thorne's complete contract bridge. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1951. Bridge at Ruff's Club. edited by Terence Reese. Batchworth.
- Phillips, Hubert and Terence Reese 1952. Bridge with Mr Playbetter. Batchworth.
- Phillips, Hubert 1959. Bridge is only a game. Parrish, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1962. Making bridge pay: how to win at rubber bridge. Parrish, London.
Other subjects
- Phillips, Hubert 1921. The development of a residential qualification for representatives in colonial legislatures. Abingdon, Cincinnati, OH. [developed as a Columbia University doctoral dissertation]
- Phillips, Hubert, Shovelton S.T. & Marshall G.S. 1933. Caliban's problem book: mathematical, inferential and cryptographic puzzles. De La Rue, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1936. Brush Up Your Wits. J M Dent, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1941. Charteris Royal. Gollancz, London. [a thriller]
- Phillips, Hubert and Westall B.C. 1945. The complete book of card games. Witherby, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1945. Something to think about. Penguin (Ptarmigan Books), Harmondsworth. A book of puzzles that sold over 100,000 copies.
- Phillips, Hubert 1945. Word play. Penguin, Harmondsworth.
- Phillips, Hubert 1948. Who wrote that? Penguin, Harmondsworth.
- Phillips, Hubert 1947. Chipwinkle: 100 Crosswords with solutions. Penguin, Harmondsworth. [X-words are by Phillips; book includes a spoof biography of 'Eugene Chipwinkle']
- Phillips, Hubert and Falconer, Pearl (1949). Meet William Shakespeare. Cornleaf, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1950. Round Britain Quiz. Hamilton, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1951. The Hubert Phillips Annual 1951. [a compendium of puzzles and quizzes]
- Phillips, Hubert 1958. The Penguin Hoyle: a book of indoor games. Penguin, C.
- Golombek, H. and Hubert Phillips 1959. Chess. Witherby.
- Phillips, Hubert 1960. The Pan book of card games. Pan, London.
- Phillips, Hubert 1960. 100 Crossword puzzles (the Hubert Phillips Crossword puzzle book). Penguin, Harmondsworth.
- Phillips, Hubert 1960. Profitable poker: the mathematics and psychology of playing a winning game. Arco, NY.
- Phillips, Hubert 1960. Journey to nowhere. Macgibbon & Kee, London. [a discursive autobiography, which concentrates on his early days]
- Phillips, Hubert 1961. My best puzzles in logic and reasoning. Dover, NY.
- Phillips, Hubert 1961. My best puzzles in mathematics. Dover, NY.
- Phillips, Hubert 1992. Mathematische puzzles: Homo ludens. Munich.
External links
- Edward WinterEdward Winter (chess historian)Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
, The Chess-loving Puzzle-master