Roy Phillipps Roy Cecil Phillipps MC & Bar , DFC ( 1 March 1892 – 21 May 1941 ) was an Australian fighter ace of World War I . Born in New South Wales but raised in Western Australia , he commenced service as an infantry man with the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915 , seeing action at Gallipoli and on the Western Front . Wounded twice in 1916 , he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps ( AFC ) and , having falsified his age , was accepted for pilot training in May 1917 . As a member of No . 2 Squadron in France , Phillips achieved fifteen aerial victories and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar and the Distinguished Flying Cross . He finished the war a major , commanding No . 6 ( Training ) Squadron in England . After leaving the AFC in 1919 , he became a farmer before enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force soon after the outbreak of World War II . Ranked squadron leader , he was in charge of No . 2 Elementary Flying Training School at Archerfield , Queensland , when he was killed in a plane crash in May 1941 at the age of forty - nine . Early life . Phillipps was born on 1 March 1892 in New South Wales , though sources differ on the exact location , which is variously recorded as rural Moree and metropolitan North Sydney . His mother took him to live in Perth , Western Australia , following the death of his father . Educated at Perth High School , he subsequently studied to be an accountant and was practicing as such when war broke out in August 1914 . World War I . 28th Battalion . In April 1915 , Phillips enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force . He joined the 28th Battalion , raised that month at Blackboy Camp , Western Australia . Successfully applying for a commission , he departed for Egypt aboard HMAT " Ascanius " on 9 June as a second lieutenant . After training in Egypt , he arrived with his unit at Gallipoli on 10 September , and was promoted to lieutenant the next month . The 28th Battalion was not heavily engaged on the peninsula and suffered relatively few casualties before the evacuation in December . In March 1916 , Phillipps and his battalion deployed to France for service on the Western Front . He participated in a night raid against the forts of Armentières on the night of 6 / 7 June , before seeing action at Pozières in July . On 5 August , he was shot through the thigh , requiring repatriation to England for hospital treatment . He was promoted to captain on 12 August . Rejoining his unit in October , Phillips took part in the Battle of the Somme but was wounded again the following month , near Gueudecourt . He returned to England once more to recover , before being discharged from hospital in March 1917 with a partially paralysed leg . Australian Flying Corps . Prevented from taking any further part in the war as an infantryman , Phillipps would normally have been repatriated home to Australia , but instead managed a transfer to the Australian Flying Corps as an adjutant in No . 2 Squadron . After getting a taste of flying as a passenger , he applied for pilot training , altering his birthdate from 1892 to 1896 to do so . His application was accepted in May and , after qualifying for his wings , his proficiency was considered such that in August he was attached to No . 32 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps to gain operational experience in France . Within three days of arriving he had been forced to crash - land his Airco DH . 5 after being hit by anti - aircraft fire near Ypres but escaped injury and , by the time he completed his attachment in September , was leading combat patrols . Phillipps married Ellen Robinson , daughter of Western Australia ' s Attorney - General , at St Mary Abbots , Kensington , on 8 September 1917 . Rejoining No . 2 Squadron the same month as a flight commander , he was initially engaged mainly in low - level strafing and bombing missions in the DH . 5 as his unit , attached to the British Third Army , took part in the Battle of Passchendaele . During the subsequent Battle of Cambrai , on 22 November , he recorded his first aerial victory when he turned the tables on a German fighter that had attacked him from above , forcing it to land . He was recommended for the Military Cross on 3 December , the award being promulgated in the " London Gazette " on 4 February 1918 , and the full citation appearing on 5 July : No . 2 Squadron converted to Royal Aircraft Factory S . E . 5 s in January 1918 . As the German Spring Offensive got under way , Phillips shot down three German fighters in as many days : a Fokker Triplane on 22 March , an Albatros the next morning , and a two - seater on 24 March ; the official history of Australia in the war recorded that the last - mentioned enemy lost its wings to Phillips ' machine - gun fire , and " fell like a stone " . With the Allies holding clear superiority over the German fighters , the main danger to the Australians was from ground fire as most combat took place at low level , and " their machines came back full of bullet - holes " . On 27 March , Phillips achieved two more victories , a Triplane that he sent down in flames near Albert and another German fighter over Méaulte . He was recommended for a bar to his Military Cross on 31 March , gazetted on 22 June : Phillipps destroyed a Pfalz near Bapaume on 16 May , before achieving his greatest success on 12 June when he shot down four German fighters in a single patrol over Ribécourt : two Fokker Triplanes , one of which he attacked head - on , an LVG , and a Fokker D . VII flown by Fritz Loerzer , commander of " Jasta " 26 and an eleven - victory ace , who was captured . These actions earned Phillips the Distinguished Flying Cross on 16 June , promulgated on 3 August : On 25 July , Phillipps was leading the escort for a raid on the Lille forts east of Armentières when he spotted a patrol of seven Fokkers . Jettisoning his bombs to lighten his load , he attacked one of the German fighters and shot away its wing , causing the others to retreat . During the Allies ' Hundred Days Offensive , on 12 August , he joined fellow No . 2 Squadron ace Adrian Cole and No . 4 Squadron aces Harry Cobby and Elwyn King to lead their combined forces in support of the British Fourth Army , Phillipps accounting for a Fokker which broke up in mid - air . Having scored two other victories that month to bring his final tally for the war to fifteen , he was promoted to major in October and posted back to England to command No . 6 ( Training ) Squadron at Minchinhampton . Interbellum and World War II . Phillipps relinquished command of No . 6 Squadron upon its disbandment in March 1919 and returned to Australia on 6 May , after which his appointment in the Australian Flying Corps was terminated . He became a farmer in Queensland and New South Wales , and was managing a station in Moree when World War II broke out in September 1939 . In February 1940 , he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force as a flying officer , taking command of No . 2 Elementary Flying Training School at Archerfield , Queensland in May . Promoted to squadron leader , Roy Phillips died on 12 May 1941 , following an accident in a private plane . He was survived by his wife , and cremated at Mt . Thompson Crematorium , Brisbane . He is commemorated on the Queensland Cremation Memorial , Brisbane , and on panel 116 of the Australian War Memorial , Canberra .