When General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile on 11 September 1973, Alan Phillips, who has died of cancer aged 76, immediately began to explore ways to support students and academics in the South American country who were being imprisoned, tortured and displaced by the regime.
As the general secretary of World University Service UK (WUS), working with a network of academics in the UK and Chile, Alan presented the incoming Labour government in 1974 with a proposal: that part of the British government’s aid budget for Chile should be reallocated to a humanitarian and social development programme supporting academics from Chile in the UK. With the backing of the then minister for overseas development, Judith Hart, a programme was put in place that would eventually benefit around 900 award holders and their families living in danger in Chile.
