Julius Alexander Phillips (SN 1577) was born in Ballarat where he attended the Dana Street State School. He was a 19 year old sewing machine mechanic when he enlisted on March 29th 1915. Posted to the 23rd Battalion, he embarked in May and served for the latter months of the Gallipoli campaign. His time in Egypt and France was dominated by a series of breaches of military discipline that culminated in January 1917 when a General Court Martial sentenced him to 18 months detention in an English prison. He was released in May 1918, then immediately hospitalised due to illness. He eventually rejoined the 23rd Battalion in France in August 1918. At the war's end he returned to Australia aboard the Ceramic, disembarking at Melbourne on March 23rd 1919 and being discharged two months later.