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Owen Cosby Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant (25 March 1863 – 5 June 1937) was a British businessman and politician, jailed in 1931 for producing a document with intent to deceive.


Background

Philipps was the third of five sons of the Reverend Sir James Erasmus Philipps, 12th Baronet, of
Picton Castle Picton Castle ( cy, Castell Pictwn) is a medieval castle near Haverfordwest in the community of Uzmaston, Boulston and Slebech, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Originally built at the end of the 13th century by a Flemish knight, it later came into the ha ...
, and his wife the Hon. Mary, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Samuel Best and sister of the fifth Baron Wynford. Born in
Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church o ...
vicarage, Wiltshire, and educated at Newton College,
Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the So ...
, Devon, he became an
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
with a Newcastle upon Tyne shipping firm, Dent & Co, in 1880 and upon completion of his apprenticeship he moved to the Glasgow shipping firm Allan & Gow in 1886.


Shipping career

With financial assistance from his eldest brother
John Philipps, 1st Viscount St Davids John Wynford Philipps, 1st Viscount St Davids , (30 May 1860 – 28 March 1938) was a British Liberal politician. Background and education Philipps was the eldest son of Reverend Sir James Erasmus Philipps, 12th Baronet, Vicar of Warminste ...
Philipps set up his own shipping firm Philipps & Co in 1888, bought his first ship in 1889 and by the end of the nineteenth century the two brothers owned two shipping lines (King Line Ltd and the Scottish Steamship Company), a finance company (the London Maritime Investment Company), and the London and Thames Haven Petroleum Wharf. Taking advantage of a low share price, the brothers acquired shares in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and by 1902 Owen had become chairman and managing director of the line. Over the next twenty years he and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company acquired a controlling interest in more than twenty other companies, including the Union-Castle Line and the
Pacific Steam Navigation Company The Pacific Steam Navigation Company ( es, Compañía de Vapores del Pacífico, links=no) was a British commercial shipping company that operated along the Pacific coast of South America, and was the first to use steam ships for commercial traffi ...
. Acquisitions continued, culminating in the purchase of the White Star in 1927. Philipps was also a
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
until 1922. In 1923 he was created a peer as Baron Kylsant, which gave him a seat in the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
. Kylsant gained a reputation for acting unilaterally and autocratically, without consulting other board members. At the same time, the complex share structure of the companies within the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company group allowed him to continue his control of the group while hiding trading losses in individual firms by moving reserves around. In 1924 Kylsant also became chairman of
Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
, the Belfast shipbuilders.


Political career

Since his time in Scotland, Philipps had been interested in politics and after two unsuccessful attempts to stand for Parliament he was elected as Member of Parliament for Pembroke and Haverfordwest as a Liberal in 1906. Reelected at the General Election in January 1910 he declined to stand again at the second general election in December 1910. It was immediately reported that he would seek the nomination for the West Carmarthenshire constituency, especially in view of his plans to live in the constituency, at Coomb Mansion, the birthplace of Lady Philipps. It was envisaged that the contest for the nomination would be between Philipps and John Hinds. However, he eventually trailed a distant third at the selection conference held at Water Street Chapel, Carmarthen, and the nomination went to Hinds . He later left the Liberal Party and joined the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
being elected unopposed as the Member for City of Chester at a by-election in 1916. Re-elected at the 1918 General Election he served until 1922, but did not stand again.


Other offices and honours

In 1904, Philipps was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire and became a deputy lieutenant for Pembrokeshire in 1917, and
Lord Lieutenant of Haverfordwest This is a list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Haverfordwest. The county corporate of Haverfordwest was usually under the jurisdiction of the Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, but it had its own Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum fr ...
in 1924. In 1909, Philipps was invested as a Knight Commander of the
Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...
(KCMG), later raised to Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) in 1918. In 1912 he was invested as a Knight of Grace of the
Order of Saint John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...
and raised to a Knight of Justice in 1916. On 14 February 1923, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Kylsant, of
Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...
in the County of Carmarthen and of Amroth in the County of Pembroke. Following his conviction he resigned all his knighthoods and lieutenancies; when he attempted to resign from his clubs, however, the offer was firmly refused.


Downfall and trial

In 1928 Kylsant applied to extend the government guarantee on a loan from the
Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...
. When the application was refused, his shipping group defaulted on part of the next repayment. Much of the group's finances were based on
debenture In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowle ...
stock paying fixed interest at five per cent, and the main trustee of this stock was Kylsant's older brother, Viscount St Davids, who was unhappy with the way debenture stock was being issued, especially a £2,000,000 issue in 1928. St Davids made his concerns public, and the stock market values of the whole group declined sharply. Worried by these revelations and fearing an economic crisis, the British government appointed the accountant William McLintock to investigate the group's finances. His report issued in early 1930 revealed that Royal Mail Steam Packet Company had liabilities in excess of £10,000,000. This was enough for the banks to act, and much of Kylsant's powers were removed to trustees appointed by the banks, although Kylsant remained chairman until November 1930. In February 1931 Kylsant and his wife went to South Africa on holiday, and in his absence McLintock revealed that for several years the Royal Mail Steam Packet group had been paying dividends to stockholders despite trading at a loss. McLintock did not report this activity as fraudulent, although politicians used the term when the matter was discussed in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
. On his return from South Africa Kylsant was arrested and charged with making false statements with regard to company accounts for 1926 and 1927, contrary to section 84 of the Larceny Act 1861. The company auditor, Harold John Morland, was charged with aiding and abetting the same offences. Kylsant was also charged with issuing a document (the prospectus issued for the 1928 debenture stock issue) with intent to deceive, contrary to section 84 of the Larceny Act 1861. Both men were committed for trial at the
Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
. The trial took place in July 1931 and lasted for nine days, presided over by Mr Justice Wright. Both men pleaded not guilty to all charges. At the end of the trial, while both men were found not guilty of the first two charges, Kylsant was found guilty of the final charge of issuing a document with intent to deceive. Morland was discharged and Kylsant was sentenced to twelve months'
imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessar ...
. After one night in prison he was released on
bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...
, pending an
appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
against the conviction. Kylsant's appeal against the conviction and sentence was heard in November 1931, when it was dismissed, and he subsequently served ten months in Wormwood Scrubs prison before being released in August 1932. In his obituary, ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'' reported:


Personal life

Owen Philipps married at
Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...
on 16 September 1902 Mai Alice Magdalene Morris, daughter of Thomas Morris, of Coomb, Carmarthenshire. They had three daughters. When Lord Kylsant died at the age of 74, the barony became extinct as he had no sons. His daughter Nesta Philipps, who had married George Coventry, later the 10th Earl of Coventry, inherited her father's house, Amroth Castle in Pembrokeshire.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kylsant, Owen Philipps, 1st Baron 1863 births 1937 deaths People from Warminster People stripped of a British Commonwealth honour Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen Philipps, Owen UK MPs who were granted peerages Lord-Lieutenants of Haverfordwest Younger sons of baronets Welsh fraudsters High Sheriffs of Pembrokeshire British politicians convicted of crimes British politicians convicted of fraud Deputy Lieutenants of Pembrokeshire Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Barons created by George V