The following is based on the guide to the Papers of the Hon. P.E.H. Samuel, [c.1909]-1992, University of Southampton Libraries Special Collections:
Philip Ellis Herbert Samuel (1900-c.1992) was the second son of Herbert Louis Samuel, first Viscount Samuel, and his wife Beatrice, daughter of Ellis A. Franklin. His brother was Edwin Herbert Samuel. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1923 to 1929 he worked for Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd., publishers; and from 1930 until 1939 he acted as a purchasing agent and consultant on office equipment, supplies and methods, as well as running the P.S. Secretarial Centre, a secretarial bureau in High Holborn. In 1939 he went to Hong Kong and Shanghai as a confidential office manager for Sir Elly Kadoorie and Sons, where he remained until interned by the Japanese at the fall of Hong Kong in 1941. He was a prisoner of war until 1945, being transferred to Japan for factory work. After the war he developed his interest in social work and welfare activities, acting as secretary/organiser of the London Association for the Welfare of the Physically Handicapped, 1951-6, and London Branches organiser for the Save the Children Fund.
Philip Samuel was editor of the BULLETIN of the Inter-University Jewish Federation of Great Britain and Ireland and affiliated student societies, 1922, the publication of which was associated with the JEWISH GUARDIAN newspaper; treasurer of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies, c.1924 9; a manager of Bayswater Jewish Schools; a member of the executive of the Joint British Committee for the Reconstruction of East European Jewry (ORT-OZE), c.1931 6; on the committee of the `Ohel Leah’ Synagogue in Hong Kong, 1941; and involved with the running of the Brady Clubs and camps.
Parts of the collection have been drawn from the papers of Philip Samuel’s parents, Lord and Lady Samuel.