 On leaving school the following term, Selwyn College, Cambridge granted him an exhibition in history.Phillips was in charge of the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, widely considered the grave of the Anglo-Saxon king Rædwald of East Anglia, from 10 July to 25 August 1939.Excavation of a large burial mound had begun in early May under the leadership of Basil Brown, who the previous year had opened several smaller mounds nearby.