Philip was born in July 1918 in Brighton, East Sussex to Harry (Herschel) and Fanny nee Schlifski and he was the eldest child of four. Philip’s grandparents Philip and Julia and his father Harry were born in Poland, and on their arrival in England, his grandfather was the publican of the Rising Sun public house on the corner of Sidney Street in the East End of London. On 3 January 1911, the siege of Sidney Street, also known as the Battle of Stepney, was a gunfight between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries. The events were filmed by Pathe News and shown in cinemas the next day. By 1916, his grandparents moved to The Fountain public house at 86 Jamaica Street and after his grandfather’s death in 1918, his grandmother Julia ran the pub until 1941. By 1939, Philip’s father Harry, originally a furniture dealer, was running his own public house The Knave of Clubs on 25 Bethnal Green Road, London. He ran the pub until his death in 1960 and the pub was passed to Philip’s brother Leonard.

Philip enlisted into the Army in 1939 and was wounded at Flanders. He was bought back to England where he died from his wounds in hospital. He was given a large funeral and the events were written about in the Jewish Chronicle.