The Royal Mail Group Voting Trustee's papers covering a series of different companies during the time of Owen Philipps 1st Baron Kylsant's trial charged with making false statements with regard to company accounts for 1926 and 1927.

The documents cover all the companies held under the Royal Mail Group covering a wide range of items including bills, committee meetings, pension funds, proposals, loans, minutes, balance sheets, press cuttings and dismissal of staff.

Administrative / biographical background
Owen Philipps in 1880, at the age of 17, was apprenticed to Dent & Co., a shipping firm in Newcastle upon Tyne; on the completion of his apprenticeship in 1886, he joined a Glasgow shipping firm, Allan & Gow. In 1888, with the financial assistance from his eldest brother (John Philipps, 1st Viscount St Davids) Owen Philipps set up his own shipping firm: Philipps & Co. By the end of the nineteenth century the two brothers established two other shipping lines (King Line Ltd and the Scottish Steamship Company) as well as a finance company (the London Maritime Investment Company) and purchased the London and Thames Haven Petroleum Wharf. In 1901 due to the weak position of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company the two brothers acquired shares at a low price. 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, which continued, culminating in the purchase of the White Star in 1927. At the end of 1928, the Royal Mail Group was at is maximum size and was the largest shipping and shipbuilding organisation in the world. For operational purposes however, the companies were arranged in a series of groups: - • Royal Mail Steam Packet group o Royal Mail Steam Packet Co Ltd o RMSP Meat Transports Ltd o Pacific Steam Navigation Co Ltd o H & W Nelson Ltd o Nelson Steam Navigation Co o MacAndrews & Co Ltd o David MacIver & Co Ltd • African Steamship group o African Steamship Co o Elder Line Ltd o Interinsular Mail Steamship Co • Elder Dempster group o Elder Dempster & Co Ltd o British & African Steam Navigation Co Ltd o Imperial Direct Line Ltd o Atlantic Coaling Co Ltd o Elders Insurance Co Ltd o West African Lighterage & Transport Co Ltd • Argentine Navigation group o Argentine Navigation Co (Nicholas Mihanovich) Ltd o Sud Atlantia Navigation Co o Uruguayan Navigation Co Ltd • Coast Lines group o Ardrossan Harbour Co o Belfast Steamship Co o British & Irish Steam Packet Co Ltd o Burns & Laird Lines Ltd o City of Cork Steam Packet Co Ltd o Coast Lines Ltd o Dublin General Steam Shipping Co Ltd o Dundalk & Newry Steam Packet Co Ltd o Michael Murphy Ltd o Tedcastle McCormick & Co Ltd o John Westcott Ltd • Glen Line group o Glen Line Ltd o Arthur Holland & Co o McGregor Gow & Holland Ltd • Lamport & Holt group o Lamport & Holt Ltd o Liverpool Brazil & River Plate Steam Navigation Co Ltd o United States & South American Steamship Co Ltd o Ardrossan Dockyard & Shipbuilding Co Ltd o Archibald MacMillan & Son Ltd (managed by H&W) • Moss group o J & P Hutchinson Ltd o James Moss & Co Ltd o Moss Steamship Co Ltd • Union-Castle group o Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co Ltd o Bullard King & Co Ltd • White Star group o Oceanic Steam Navigation Co Ltd o White Star Line Ltd o Shaw Savill & Albion Co Ltd o George Thompson & Co Ltd (Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line) • Non-shipping group o Harland & Wolff Ltd o David Colville & Sons Ltd o Burmeister & Wain (Diesel System)Oil Engineering Co Ltd o Caird & Co Ltd o D & W Henderson & Co Ltd o A & J Inglis Ltd