Percival Phillips was born in 1877. He began writing for newspapers at the age of sixteen with articles about coal miners rioting in Southwestern Pennsylvania. At the age of nineteen he began pursuing a dream of being a war correspondent with coverage of the Greco-Turkish war and later the war in Cuba. He next moved to London, England and worked for the Daily Express covering wars in Japan and Russia, Tripoli and the Balkans. Although an American the British government selected him to be one of five correspondents to cover the British portion of the Western Front during the World War I, as well as to cover the troubles in Ireland. After the war he was knighted by King George for these services. He next moved to the Daily Mail where he continued covering conflicts in Russia, China, and India, as well as problems in Iraq, the rise of Mussolini in Italy and Gandhis activities in India. In 1935 he joined the Daily Telegraph and later covered a revolution in Greece and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. His final war was the Spanish Civil War during which he died in 1937.