On 19 November 1921, Brisbane newspaper Sports Referee reported:
Soccer followers will learn with regret that the late treasurer of the Thistle Club, Mr. Hughie Phimister, has crossed the Great Divide, since returning from the war. He took a great interest in the Thistle Club and Soccer generally, but an old complaint, aggravated by war service, brought on a protracted illness, from which he never recovered.
Phimister was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family moved to Scotland in 1899, and to Queensland by 1903, where the family resided in Stafford. By the time Phimister enlisted in September 1915, he was a 24-year-old packer living in Alderley, Brisbane. He left Australia in May 1916, and did not arrive in France until the New Year. Phimister almost immediately fell sick with syphilis, and did not recover until March. He was transferred to the 8th Field Artillery Brigade in June as a Gunner, before promotion to Bombardier by the end of the year. Phimister reached Corporal by the time he was discharged in 1919.
Phimister’s discharge Medical Report stated he had no wounds or disabilities. The “old complaint” aggravated by the war was not obviously mentioned at enlistment or discharge. He returned to Brisbane after the war where he worked as a compositor. In 1920 he was arrested, alongside his brother Walter, for assaulting a police officer. According to The Telegraph of 27 July 1920, the brothers were involved in a drunken fight with four others on George Street after midnight. The six fighters then assaulted the attending Constable Halliwell. Phimister was subsequently charged with destroying Halliwell’s false teeth. The brothers, tried together, pleaded guilty and Phimister was ordered to pay a fine and the replacement cost of the teeth.
Phimister became treasurer of Thistles after the war, but ill health led him to resign from the position in May 1921. There is no evidence he was involved in the sport before the war, but most of the clubs, especially from the lower leagues, received little coverage at the time.
He died in November 1921, with his death reported in the soccer columns of The Daily Mail and Sports Referee.