CORPORAL 520 PHILIP FLETCHER DIXON, MACHINE GUN CORPS (MOTORS), 4 BATTERY.

CORPORAL 520 PHILIP FLETCHER DIXON, MACHINE GUN CORPS (MOTORS), 4 BATTERY. KILLED IN ACTION 8th JUNE 1917 AGED 25

                                                            Courtesy Andrew Bolt 

Philip Dixon was born in Hobart, Tasmania on 19th March 1892. His father, John, had taken employment as a schoolmaster and with his wife and son lived on Upper Argyle Street. John and his wife were originally from Ilkley and a few years after the birth of their son decided to return to the town and took a house at 2, Ashburn Place.

The family were committed Quakers who worshipped at the Meeting House on Kings Road and although Philip was educated at Ilkley Grammar School he was later sent to the Quaker boarding School at Ackworth in Pontefract. 

In the years leading up to the outbreak of war Philip had been apprenticed to a firm of architects in Gloucester but later returned to Ilkley to take up a position with the firm of J C Proctor in Leeds. In his spare time he was an active member of Ilkley and District Motor Cycle Club, who held regular meetings at The Crescent Hotel on Brook Street. The club attracted active motor cyclists who would spend weekends riding across the area both on and off road. Remarkably the club still exists, although, no longer based in the town.

In early September 1914 just after the outbreak of war several members of the Ilkley Motor Cycle Club, including Philip and his best friend George Fox, a butcher from Leeds Road, enlisted in the Ilkley Pal's Company of the 9th West Riding Regiment and were sent to begin their training in Dorset. 
The idea that motor cycles could play a part in a continental war had taken hold and was being promoted by a number of individuals. Adverts were placed in The Motor Cycle Magazine for men with experience to come forward for this new unit. Both Philip and George Fox applied for the assessment which was extremely rigorous and were accepted into the Motor Machine Gun Section (MMGS) of the Royal Artillery. Basically, the idea was that motorcycle sidecar combinations would be able to be able to move rapidly and provide machine gun support for infantry units. In a war of movement this might have made sense, but in trench warfare it was of little practical use. Nevertheless, the British Army allowed the idea to evolve and units of the MMGS were sent to France. It is fair to say the Philip Dixon and George Fox must have been amongst the first Kitchener Volunteers to arrive in France when disembarked on 13th January 1915.

Throughout 1915, 1916 and 1917 batteries of the MMGS provided support across the front line. Equipped with Vickers heavy machine guns they were able to successfully concentrate fire against the enemy in support of British infantry attacks. 

In early June 1917 Philip and his unit 4th Battery, Motor Machine Gun Corps moved into positions south of Ypres north of the Ypres-Commines Canal in support of a British attack which was part of the Messines Offensive. Located behind the front line near to a position called Gordon Post they directed heavy machine gun fire above the heads of the attacking British troops and into the German trenches. On the morning of the 8th June the 4th Battery were firing their machine guns when their position was spotted by a lone German aeroplane. The enemy pilot swooped down to attack and strafed the British with his machine gun. Philip was hit in the head and mortally wounded, his colleagues dragged him from the gun pits and tried to get him to a Casualty Clearing Station but their effort were of no avail and within an hour Philip was dead.

Corporal Philip Fletcher Dixon was buried in Bedford House British Military Cemetery near to where he fell and where he lies today. He is also remembered on our war memorial in Ilkley.