Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until December 1753. He then became an apprentice on the whaling ship Fortune.
With the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War against France, Phillip enlisted in the Royal Navy as captain’s servant. Phillip was promoted to lieutenant on 7 June 1761. Seconded to the Portuguese Navy in 1774, he served in the war against Spain.
In 1784, Phillip was employed by Home Office Under Secretary Evan Nepean, to survey French defences in Europe. There was fear that Britain would soon be at war with these powers as a consequence of the Batavian Revolution in the Netherlands. From October 1784 to September 1786, Nepean employed him to spy on the French naval arsenals at Toulon and other ports.
In 1783, a proposal for establishing a settlement in New South Wales for American loyalists, Chinese, and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts) was raised. Lord Sydney decided to establish the proposed colony in Australia. This decision was made to end the transport of convicts to North America following the American Revolution, and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion.
In 1786, Phillip was appointed by Lord Sydney as the commander of the First Fleet to establish a penal colony and a settlement at Botany Bay, New South Wales. Phillip was a far-sighted governor who soon realised that New South Wales would need a civil administration and a system for emancipating convicts. However, his plan to bring skilled tradesmen on the First Fleet’s voyage had been rejected. Consequently, he faced immense problems with labour, discipline, and supply.
Phillip wanted harmonious relations with the local indigenous peoples, in the belief that everyone in the colony was a British citizen and was protected by the law as such, therefore the indigenous peoples had the same rights as everyone under Phillip’s command. Eventually, cultural differences between the two groups of people led to conflict. The arrival of more convicts with the Second and Third Fleets placed new pressures on scarce local resources.
On 11 December 1792, Phillip left the colony to return to Britain to receive medical treatment for kidney stones. He had planned to return to Australia, but medical advisors recommended he resign from the governorship. His health recovered and he returned to active duty in the Navy in 1796 before retiring from active naval service in 1805. He died in 1814.
Stamps & Postal Products
1986 The Decision To Settle – 33c Captain Arthur Phillip
1987 People of the First Fleet – 37c Convicts
