OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 9

OBITUARY

LORD KYLSANT

LONDON, June G,

The death has occurred of Baron Kylsant of Carmarthen, who, after joining the board of directors of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1903, made the Royal Mail group easily the greatest shipping combination in the world.

It was in connection with the expansion of this great concern that he allowed a prospectus to be issued which resulted in his being charged in 1931 with having misrepresented- one of his company's positions by the manipulation of secret reserves. The Judge took four hours to sum up at the trial. Lord Kylsant was acquitted on two charges, but on a third he was convicted and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

The case stood out as showing to the world that neither influence nor riches could disturb the course of English justice. Everywhere there was pity for the man but admiration for the impartiality of the Court.

Lord Kylsant, who was 6ft 7in in height, was the tallest peer in England.

He had led a retired life since his release from prison in 1032.

Mr. Owen Cosby Philipps who later becam-3 Lord Kylsant was born in 1863 and was the third son of Canon Sir James Erasmus Philipps the twelfth baronet and the Hon. Lady Philipps, sister of Lord Wynford. He married Miss Mai Morris, of Coombe, Carmarthenshire, had three daughters, and owned about 6000 acres. He was raised to the peerage in 1923. He was for a long period a prominent figure in the shipping world, beginning as a small shipowner and becoming head of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., which he increased in size, but not in strength, by a series of amalgamations. For a long time he was held to be "a giant of shipping," but his claims to business greatness vanished with the revelation that the RM.S.P. was, in the words of the Official Receiver, in such straits that the shareholders could not expect a return of more than a shilling in the pound. The failure of the company, declared the Official Receiver, was due to the ambitious schemes of Lord Kylsant, whose autocratic control carried through all his projects and "it. was not surprising that the crazy structure erected by the ambition of one man should have cracked and crumbled."

Lord Kylsant was tried and found guilty in July, 1931, of circulating or publishing annual reports of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (of which he was chairman) for the years 1926 and 1027 which he knew to be false in a material particular; also with circulating or publishing a prospectus which he knew to be false in a material particular with intent to induce persons to entrust or advance property to the company. He was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. He became chairman of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1902. This company was an ancient semi-Royal Navy company operating out of Southampton to the West Indies and South America. It had experienced "heavy weather" in 1902, md after a stormy meeting of shareholders held in London a committee of investigation was there and then set up. Mr. Owen Philipps was subsequently appointed chairman of the company. He increased the interests of the R.M.S.P. in other shipping companies and took over control of the Nelson Shire, Union-Castle, and other important shipping lines operating in South America, South Africa, West Africa, and the Far East. He was also chairman and managing director of the White Star Line which purchased the Australian Commonwealth Government's fleet tor £1,900,000. There is no heir to the title.