The Formation of Elder Dempster and Company Limited

Alfred Jones’ success in organising the West African trade ought not to detract from the achievements of other British shipowners. Sir Donald Currie (Union Castle Line), Sir John Ellerman (Ellerman, Hall, City, Leyland and Bucknall Lines), Alfred Holt (Blue Funnel Line), and Lord Inchcape (Peninsular and Oriental) are but a few of the more prominent names which spring to mind. One of the younger members of this eminent group was Owen Cosby Philipps, better known as Lord Kylsant, who was to play a decisive part in the history of Elder Dempster.

Philipps was born at Warminster in 1863 and served an apprenticeship with a shipowning and shipbroking concern at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He moved to Glasgow in 1886 and the following year, at the age of twenty-five, he founded his own firm, Philipps, Philipps and Company, and established the King Line. In 1897 Philipps formed the London Maritime Investment Company and in 1898 became chairman of London and Thameshaven Oil Wharves Limited. In January 1903, Philipps became a director of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and within three months had become its chairman. This action cemented the close relationship that already existed between Royal Mail and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, for Philipps had also secured a large interest in the latter concern.

The Royal Mail Group subsequently extended its interests still further. It acquired the Shire Line in 1907 and the Forwood Line in 1908, and when Alfred Jones died in 1909 its attention was turned towards Elder Dempster. This was not the first contact between the two companies, for Philipps had crossed swords with Jones on several occasions. In 1905 the West Indian mail contract expired. The Royal Mail confidently expected to renew its long-standing agreement but, instead, the Colonial Office announced that a new contract had been provisionally granted to Elder Dempster and Company. Philipps then used his influence with a number of the West Indian legislatures to prevent the contract being confirmed, but it took him until 1907 to regain even a moderate subsidy for his own vessels.

Philipps’ success in business led to a demand that he enter Parliament, and in 1906 he became Liberal member for Pembroke and Haverfordwest. Almost immediately he was invited to join the Royal Commission on Shipping Rings, where he proved to be one of its more knowledgeable and searching members.