He was educated at Ampleforth College, Ampleforth, Yorkshire, England, and then became a chartered accountant.
About this time, at the request of Bishop Baines, he and some other members of the community left Ampleforth to establish a monastery at Prior Park, near Bath.
Born as Peter Charles Cowper (pronounced "Cooper") in 1931 at Sandgate, Kent, one of the five children of Major Charles Deane Cowper, and his wife, Lorna, young Peter's career at Ampleforth began at St Aidan's House in September 1945.
In 1946, she married secondly Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean, who raised Phipps, who was educated at Ampleforth and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Ninian Crichton Stuart (more commonly known as Ninian Stuart) is the Hereditary Keeper of Falkland Palace a former Scottish royal palace He is a cousin of Johnny Bute, formerly known as The Earl of Dumfries, both of whom attended Ampleforth College.