Philipps, Tracy

Philipps, Tracy, b 20 November 1888 in Hillington, Norfolk, United Kingdom, d 21 July 1959 in London. Journalist and international affairs expert. Educated at Oxford and Durham universities, Philipps was an enigmatic figure with connections to the British intelligence community. In addition to holding postings in East Africa and the Near East, he served as the British relief commissioner in Ukraine in 1921. Between the two world wars he was a foreign newspaper correspondent specializing in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. He came into contact with Vladimir Kaye-Kysilewsky in London during the 1930s, and in 1940 went to Canada, where he played an important role (together with Kaye-Kysilewsky and George Simpson) in establishing the Ukrainian Canadian Committee. In 1941–3 he was an adviser to the Canadian Department of War Services on European immigrant communities and their role in war industry. He was chief of planning, resettlement of displaced persons, United Nations Administration, in Washington, DC, and Germany in 1944–5. For a time (from 1939) he was married to Liubka Kolessa, pianist and daughter of Oleksander Kolessa. His writings included monographs and articles on zoology, Islam, ethnology, international affairs, and refugee and minority problems.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]