Philip Balfour was born on 10 March 1898 and educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
During a heavy bombardment of his battery he organised a party, and at great personal risk, extinguished a burning ammunition dump.
Two days afterwards, when acting as Brigade Forward Observing Officer, he showed great initiative in obtaining information as to the position of the infantry, making two journeys in the dark through an intense shell and machine gun barrage to a battalion headquarters 600 yards away.
[5] Balfour also served in the Second World War, initially as a GSO2 before being made Commander, Royal Artillery of the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division.
[6] After the war Balfour joined the Control Commission in Germany in 1945 and then became Director of Civil Affairs for the Military Government, British Army of the Rhine in 1946.