Roy Cecil Phillipps, MC & Bar, DFC (1 March 1892 – 21 May 1941) was an Australian fighter ace of World War I.

Returning to Australia in 1919, he left the AFC and was managing a rural property when he enlisted in the RAAF soon after the outbreak of World War II.

Phillipps was born on 1 March 1892 in New South Wales; sources differ on the exact location, which is recorded as either rural Moree,[1][2] or metropolitan North Sydney.

[2][5] Phillipps enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915 and was assigned to the 28th Battalion, an infantry unit raised the same month at Blackboy Camp, Western Australia.

[7] The 28th Battalion, which had been sent to Gallipoli late in the campaign as reinforcements, was not heavily engaged on the peninsula, and suffered relatively few casualties before the withdrawal in December 1915.

[2][9] Unable to take any further part in the war as an infantryman, Phillipps would normally have been repatriated to Australia, but instead engineered a transfer to the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) as adjutant of No.

Within three days of arriving he crash-landed his Airco DH.5 after it was hit by anti-aircraft fire near Ypres, but he escaped injury; by the time he completed his attachment in September he was leading combat patrols.

[4][11] Phillipps married Ellen Robinson, daughter of Western Australia's Attorney-General, at St Mary Abbots in Kensington, London, on 8 September 1917.

2 Squadron within the month as a flight commander, he was initially engaged mainly in low-level strafing and bombing missions in DH.5s as his unit, attached to the British Third Army, took part in the Battle of Passchendaele.

[10][13] 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.

[8][14] He was recommended for the Military Cross on 3 December,[15] the award being promulgated in The London Gazette on 4 February 1918,[16] and the full citation appearing on 5 July:[17] Capt.

[10] The unit generally conducted patrols with flights of six aircraft but found it difficult to lure enemy fighters into combat, so after a lull in fighting early in February it began flying two-plane missions, which yielded better results.

[18] The following month, as the German spring offensive got under way, Phillipps 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 Phillipps' 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".

He has also brought back accurate and valuable information regarding hostile movements under the most adverse conditions, particularly on one occasion, when he flew through a heavy barrage at a low altitude behind the enemy's lines.

[23] 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.

Whilst on offensive patrol this officer destroyed personally four enemy aeroplanes; he has also shown the greatest gallantry during the recent operations in attacking troops and transports on the roads, and dropping bombs from very low altitudes.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.

4 Squadron aces Harry Cobby and Roy King to lead their combined forces in support of the British Fourth Army, Phillipps accounting for a Fokker that broke up in mid-air.

2 EFTS was one of twelve basic flying schools established by the RAAF as part of Australia's contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme.

[8][40] The aircraft, piloted by its owner, Flight Lieutenant J. W. F. Collins, was reported to have taken off from Archerfield at night without RAAF or Civil Aviation Department clearance, and collided with trees.