Phillips, William Kenneth

Third assistant secretary of state of the United States.

William Phillips, son of John C. and Anna (Tucker) Phillips, was born in Beverly, Mass., May 30, 1878; was educated at Harvard; and on Feb. 2, 1910, married Caroline A. Drayton. In 1903, he entered the diplomatic service as secretary to J.H. Choate, Ambassador to Great Britain. From 1914-17 he was third assistant secretary of state; from 1917-20, assistant secretary of state; 1920-22, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, 1922-24, under secretary of state; ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary Belgium, 1924-27; envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Canada, 1927-29; under secretary of state, 1933; ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Italy from 1936 to Dec. 9, 1941; chairman, Massachusetts Emergency Committee for Unemployment, 1931-32; U.S. delegate to London Naval Conference,1935; director,Office of Strategic services, London, 1942; currently, personal representative of the President, with rank of ambassador, at Delhi. (from Who' s Who in Am., 1944-45).