Arthur Todd Phillips was born in Ealing, Middlesex [now London], England on 24 August 1887 and was articled to Charles Francis Annersley Voysey (1857-1941) for over three years from 1904. He later worked as an assistant to Frank Peck (1863-1941). He qualified as an architect in 1911 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1912. In c.1912 he moved to Canada and worked as an architect in Calgary until c.1919 when he appears to have returned to England. He was commended for a design he entered in the Daily Mail Ideal Workers Homes Competition in 1919.
During the 1930s he was in partnership with Walter Alwyn Cole-Adams (1891-1971) and William George Lloyd Cheriton (1888-1975) as Cole-Adams, Phillips & Cheriton, and, when Cheriton left the practice, as Cole-Adams & Phillips. Cole-Adams & Phillips had an office at 45 Lower Belgrave Street, London.
In the 1939 England and Wales Register Phlilips gave his occupation as Civil Servant, Officer Emergency Reserve.
Phillips's address was given as Llanoley, Kirkwich Avenue, Harpenden, Hertfordshire in 1911; 7 Hatfield Court, Calgary. Canada in 1913; P.O. Box 281, Calgarv, Canada in 1914 and 1919; Brook Dene, St. John's Road, Bournemouth, Dorset in 1919; 45 Belgrave Street, London in 1938; and Flat 48, [name of road not known], Esher, Surrey in 1939. He died in Sussex on 2 March 1957
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001