LSE Library Image source Economist and inventor Bill Phillips

Bill Phillips was born in New Zealand in 1914.

At the age of 15 he took an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer.

Six years later, in 1935, he moved to Australia where, among other casual jobs, he hunted crocodiles and worked as a goldmine electrician. After a year in the outback he moved to the UK, aged 22, and qualified as an engineer.

After the Second World War ended, Phillips studied sociology at the London School of Economics (LSE).

However, he was quickly drawn into 1940s experiments that used mathematical models to explain how the economy worked.