Great frauds in history: Lord Kylsant and RMSPC

Owen Philipps, AKA Lord Kylsant, manipulated the account of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), leaving the company's shareholders with nothing.

Owen Philipps, Lord Kylsant (right) Central Press/Getty Images

Owen Philipps, Lord Kylsant (right)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Owen Philipps was born in Warminster in 1863 and was apprenticed to a Newcastle shipping firm at the age of 17. In 1888 he set up his own shipping firm with his elder brother John. Three years later the brothers started acquiring shares in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC). Owen went on to be appointed chairman and, over the next 25 years, RMSPC would become the parent of a sprawling group of shipping-related companies that would control around 13% of all large British ships, as well as shipbuilder Harland and Wolff. In 1923 Philipps was granted a peerage, becoming Lord Kylsant.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

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