Gerald William Phillips (1884-1956) graduated from Oxford and took orders, then became a teacher and a Shakespearean scholar. The following biography is taken from the archives of Westminster School in London, https://collections.westminster.org.uk/index.php/homeboarders/term/relatedAuthorities?sortDir=asc&sort=lastUpdated&page=78&listPage=25&listLimit=10&onlyDirect=1
Phillips, Gerald William, son of Arthur Phillips, of Ashtead, Surrey, barrister-at-law, by Emma Pratt, of Cambridge; b. July 19, 1884; adm. Jan. 21, 1897 (H); Q.S. (non-resident) 1899; elected head to Ch. Ch. Oxon. 1903, matric. Michaelmas 1903; B.A. 1907; M.A. 1920; ordained 1909; Curate of St. Thomas’s, Oxford, 1909-11, of St. Andrew’s, Worthing, Sussex, 1911-2; served in France in Great War I; 2nd Lieut. 6th Batt. Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry May 30, 1915; Lieut. Feb. 4, 1917; temp. Capt. Sept. 4, 1918; assist. master at Wells House, Springfield, Malvern Wells, 1925; received into the Roman Catholic Church; successively an asst. master at Stowe School and principal of Shoreham Grammar School, Sussex 1931-40; a Shakespearean scholar; author of Sunlight in Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1935) and other works; d. June 19, 1956.
Phillips was a committed member of the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship whose principal tenet is that the true author of the writings attributed to William Shakespeare was instead Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Phillips published several papers on the subject. The newsletters of the group, including Phillips’ essays, are available here: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/the-shakespeare-fellowship-english-news-letter-1937-1958/ An obituary for Phillips was published in the newsletter in 1956: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/SFE-1956b-AUTUMN.pdf
Somehow Phillips found the time to write one mystery for which he used the name John Huntingdon. The Seven Black Chessmen was published by Gerald Howe in 1928 in London and by Henry Holt in New York, then reprinted by Coachwhip Publications in 2025. Coachwhip describes it as a Holmes pastiche and certainly Horton Forbes bears a resemblance to the Great Detective. His sidekick, schoolteacher Jack Kent, has a greater part of the action than Dr. Watson ever did, though.
The book starts simply enough: Kent is on summer leave and intends to spend a few days fishing in the country. He takes his creel and rod and walks a mile or two toward a pond whose finny residents he seeks, only to encounter an automobile stopped in the road. The automobile is not running and the man behind the wheel is unresponsive. Kent returns to the village for assistance, where he encounters Horton Forbes for the first time. Forbes volunteers to take Kent to the nearest doctor, and the three return to the scene where the doctor pronounces Professor Cheney, the man in the automobile, dead. The professor had not been well and the doctor had no qualms in issuing a death certificate.
Forbes on the other hand was immediately suspicious and raised enough questions such that a post mortem was conducted and concluded that the professor died of an overdose of morphine. Kent accepts Forbes’ invitation to help him investigate and an adventure including a young woman in danger, imprisonment in a cellar, a secret formula, and a malevolent organization that uses a chessboard to plot its moves and name its members.
An entertaining essay by Mark Valentine on the blog Wormwoodiana includes some commentary on The Seven Black Chessmen, amidst other topics such as Phoenicians and Greeks in Cornwall, Edwin Drood, and stories that start with young men taking a vacation in the country. https://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2016/06/scholars-on-holiday.html With absolutely no evidence other than the esoteric content of the essay I conclude that Mr. Valentine is the gentleman of the same name whom Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda describes as “an exceptionally genial excavator of half-forgotten and eccentric books.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/forget-the-bestseller-list-these-lesser-known-works-deserve-your-attention/2021/05/12/7e9934fc-b190-11eb-9059-d8176b9e3798_story.html
It is too bad that Phillips didn’t find the time to write another mystery about Horton Forbes, as he has series potential. This first effort is a well-written and plotted story that incorporates the conventions of the time.