 There he attended Henley Grammar school, which he termed "a rather difficult time at the rather decayed" school; once his mother obtained a diploma in dairying from Reading University and moved to tend to the dairy at Arundel Castle, he lodged with an old friend of his father, visiting his family for the holidays.From 1909 to 1910 Phillips was educated at Littlehampton Commercial School, his tuition paid for by the Freemasons of which his father had been a member, and by their graces he was installed in the Royal Masonic School for Boys in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in January 1911.Phillips was the only new boy assigned to his junior house.