Education
Eton College; New College.
Eton College; New College.
Throughout his career Philipson was competing for the wicket-keeper"s spot in the English Test side with Gregor MacGregor, which resulted in him playing in only five Test matches for England, which he did on the 1891/2 and 1894/5 tours of Australia. He also toured India with George Vernon in 1889, though this tour did not include any Tests. Philipson went to Eton and had a good record as a schoolboy cricketer, before going to Oxford, where he got his blue and where he became captain in 1889.
He also represented Oxford at tennis, rackets and Association football.
His highest first-class innings was his 150 for the University against Middlesex in 1887, and in this year he was selected to play for the Gentlemen at both Lord"s and the Oval. At birth his name was registered as "Hilton Philipson".
Philipson has been described as "one of those late Victorian gentleman amateurs quite indecently blessed by fortune". He owed his own wealth to the Northumbrian coal mines.
Philipson was a noted gardener.
A visit to Japan on the way back from the Test series in Australia in 1895 inspired him to apply knowledge that he acquired there to estate of Stobo Castle, near Peebles, in the Scottish Borders. Stobo had originally been in the family of Philipson"s wife, the Honourable Nina Murray, until their exile following the Jacobite rising of 1745. The Japanese-style water garden that Philipson created at Stobo between 1909-1913 has been maintained, despite a succession of owners after the estate was sold shortly after his death.
Stobo was acquired in 1971 by Leo Seymour, whose family still own it, and is occasionally open to the public.
