The Haileybury Society is saddened to learn belatedly of the death of Dr Courtenay Stanley Goss Phillips (Ha 38) who died on Good Friday, April 15th 2022 at the age of 97.

Born in Monmouthshire, Courtenay studied at Haileybury between 1938 and 1942 before moving up to Merton College as a Postmaster to read Chemistry. Little did he know it but he was to spend the rest of hic career and all his adult life in Oxford, firstly as a student, where he was awarded a first-class degree in Chemistry and a Half Blue in Golf, and then appointed a Fellow and Tutor of Merton in 1948 at the age of 24.

Inflential and widely recognised

Both at Merton and as a University Lecturer in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford he was to educate many generations of chemists, and also made a number of very important contributions to the development of the technique of gas chromatography.

Classic works

He published the first textbook on the subject, Gas Chromatography, in 1956, in addition to around 100 research papers over his career., his work being recognised by awards in the UK, the USA and what was then the USSR.

As well as being a founder member of the discussion group which became The Chromatographic Society, he also co-wrote with RJP Williams Inorganic Chemistry, a classic two-volume textbook of its day.

Merton man

Merton was a major part of Courtenay’s life. A man dedicated to the College and to teaching, he believed passionately in supporting his tutees to achieve their best, expecting nothing short of excellence. Even after he retired in 1992, Courtenay continued to give tutorials and classes, including revision classes to Merton chemists.

Other interests

Elsewhere, Courtenay acted as an advisor to British and US government bodies on security and matters relating to the Middle East. As well as helping to establish the first university in the Sultanate of Oman, he also worked as an advisor to chemical industries in the UK and overseas.

Beyond chemistry, golf remained a passion for Courtenay; he dedicated much of his retirement to the development of Frilford Golf Club in Oxfordshire, keeping alive a passion first exhibited so many decades before when gaining his Half Blue in the far off 1940s.

Remembering Courtenay

Donations in memory of Courtenay are welcomed for Merton College Student Support Fund; to find out more, please click here.

Courtenay was husband to the late Jean. He was also father to Julia and Martyn, father- in-law to Mika and grandfather to Seiju, to whom The Haileybury Society sends its deepest condolences.

Image courtesy of Merton College Oxford