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ROLLS-ROYCE MOTOR CARS: SHAPING THE WORLD FOR 120 YEARS

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  • Rolls-Royce marks the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the primary assembly between founders Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, on 4 May 1904
  • A short evaluate of the founders’ lives and careers within the years main as much as their historic encounter in Manchester, and the roles of different much less well-known, however nonetheless pivotal, actors within the Rolls-Royce origin story
  • An examination of the world and society through which Rolls-Royce was established and the marque’s contribution to the broader technological progress of the age
  • Part of a year-long celebration of the extraordinary folks, occasions and motor vehicles that make up Rolls-Royce’s wealthy and noteworthy heritage

“From a modern perspective, 1904 can feel impossibly distant from our own times. But it was an age of unprecedented invention, innovation and technological progress, in which many of the things we now take for granted first appeared. Rolls-Royce was born into this extraordinarily dynamic, creative world and would go on to shape it profoundly and irrevocably. Looking back, the meeting of Rolls and Royce seems somehow predestined, the arcs of their respective careers up to that point making it appear almost inevitable. In fact, it came about through a web of chance connections and overlapping relationships; without these, given their vastly different backgrounds and social circles, it might never have happened at all. We are proud to continue their remarkable story, to celebrate and build upon their unique legacy 120 years later.”
 Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

On 4 May 2024, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marks the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the primary assembly between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls. The founders’ private tales, the historical past of the corporate they based and its motor vehicles are well-known and obtainable to view elsewhere on the Rolls-Royce PressClub.

To rejoice this auspicious anniversary, Rolls-Royce considers the historic, technological and social context through which the marque got here into being and the affect and affect of the Rolls-Royce identify over its 120 years. But to totally perceive the marque’s origins and legacy, one should first attain a bit additional again in time and look at the founders’ actions within the years instantly previous to that first, world-changing encounter in 1904.

HENRY ROYCE: THE ENGINEER

For Henry Royce, the story actually begins in late 1884, when he based his first engineering firm, F. H. Royce & Co. (he was christened Frederick Henry) in Manchester. Initially producing small gadgets comparable to battery-powered doorbells, the corporate progressed to creating heavy gear together with overhead cranes and railway shunting capstans.

But after nearly twenty years of enlargement and success, in 1902 the corporate was heading for monetary bother, owing to competitors from an inflow of cheaper merchandise from Germany and the USA. Royce’s perfectionism and obsession with enchancment meant he was not ready to enter a race to the underside, or compromise the standard of his merchandise. Habitual overwork and fixed pressure significantly affected his already weakened structure, and at last his well being collapsed completely.

His medical doctors ordered him to take an prolonged break, so Royce launched into a 10-week go to to his spouse’s household in South Africa. Yet even on a medically imposed relaxation remedy, his engineer’s thoughts was as lively and inquisitive as ever. His selection of studying materials on the lengthy voyage was The Automobile: Its Construction and Management, initially written in French by Gérard Lavergne and translated into English that 12 months. This was actually ‘the book’ on easy methods to construct a motor automobile, and Royce was clearly each enlightened and impressed by it.

On his return to England, Royce – now bodily and mentally recovered – instantly acquired his first motor automobile, a French 10 H.P. Decauville. It’s usually been assumed that this automobile was so poorly made and unreliable that Royce, out of sheer frustration, set about addressing its quite a few defects.

In reality, nearly the alternative is true. He selected the Decauville exactly as a result of it was a superb, state-of-the-art machine with the categorical intention of dismantling it, analysing each element, then producing his personal automobile from scratch. Any fairly competent engineer might have upgraded a badly constructed, substandard product: it took a genius of Royce’s stature to, in his personal phrases, “take the best that exists and make it better”.

THE VITAL ROLE OF ‘LITTLE ERNIE’

One of the lesser recognized – however nonetheless important – contributors to the primary Royce vehicles’ growth was Ernest Wooler. Born in Manchester in 1888, 15-year-old Ernest stood 5 ft 4 inches (1.62m) tall and was nicknamed ‘Little Ernie’ when he joined Royce Limited in 1903 as an indentured premium apprentice – a place for which his father paid the very appreciable sum of £100 (over £15,000 at in the present day’s values). He labored a 56-hour week for a shilling a day (about £7.60 now) within the drawing workplace, studying to make blueprints – and, strictly towards the foundations, producing his personal drawings on the draughtsmen’s boards.

One morning, he obtained an ominous summons: Mr Royce himself wished to see him. After severely reprimanding the unlucky teen for his unauthorised handiwork, Royce ordered him to go and fetch a typist’s notepad. Mystified, Ernie did as he was instructed and gave the pad to his employer. Royce waved it away. “You hold onto that and follow me,” he mentioned and led the way in which to the workshops, the place he climbed onto the Decauville, took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Then, assisted by a fitter, he started methodically taking the automobile aside. Nearby, Ernie sat on a field along with his notepad. “Each piece was handed to me, and I made a sketch of it and added the dimensions they quoted,” he later recalled.

As Royce appropriately judged, Ernie was the best individual to seize the essential knowledge that will inform the design of the motor vehicles that adopted. It’s additionally tempting to surprise if Royce recognised a kindred spirit; a younger man beginning on the backside, however keen to higher himself. If so, he was proper. In 1913, Ernie emigrated to America and loved a profitable profession as a design engineer, changing into an professional in bearings and submitting quite a few patents. In 1947, he retired to Hillsboro Beach, Florida, the place he was elected because the city’s first mayor.

SMALL THINGS MAKE PERFECTION

Royce had left faculty aged simply 10 and his formal schooling consisted of night lessons in English and Mathematics that he attended in his late teenagers; later, because the world-renowned Sir Henry, he nonetheless self-deprecatingly described himself as having the ability to do not more than easy arithmetic. But he had an instinctive, intuitive expertise that greater than made up for his lack of educational credentials.

As famous, the Decauville was a extremely developed motor automobile in its personal proper and Royce sensibly retained a few of its key options – a two-cylinder engine, dwell propshaft and differential fairly than chain drive – in his personal designs. He additionally launched quite a few detailed alterations and improvements: mechanically fairly than atmospherically operated inlet valves; a more practical radiator; alternative important, large finish and gearbox bearings; and a single gear lever changing the Decauville’s notoriously difficult twin-lever association. From the outset, he was obsessive about decreasing the automobile’s total weight, starting with the easy and apparent expedient of discarding the Decauville’s bronze warning bell, which apparently weighed round 20kg (over 40lb).

It was not solely the Decauville that Royce subjected to his intricate and exacting scrutiny. Between 1902 and 1905 he repaired, investigated and test-drove varied makes of vehicles belonging to (presumably keen) pals and acquaintances to realize extra first-hand insights. According to his personal data, he coated some 11,000 miles in the midst of this analysis; lots of them undoubtedly within the Decauville, which he stored till at the very least 1906.

Royce the engineer was aiming to construct one of the best automobile on the earth. It was no self-importance venture or proof-of-concept train: he needed his technical innovation to be commercially viable. Unfortunately, simple attraction, a large social community and a method with phrases weren’t amongst his many items. But in London, there was a younger man who had these qualities in abundance.

THE HON. CHARLES STEWART ROLLS: THE SALESMAN

In many respects, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls was Royce’s antithesis: rich, aristocratic, urbane, well-connected and extremely (and expensively) educated. What they shared was a ardour for engineering and equipment – in Rolls’s case, racing vehicles, sizzling air balloons and aeroplanes.

After graduating from Cambridge in 1898, Rolls had been briefly employed as Third Engineer on his household’s steam yacht, the Santa Maria, following a spell on the London & North-Western Railway in Crewe. But after just some years, he realised that his appreciable abilities required a unique outlet.

In January 1902, Rolls opened one in every of Britain’s first automobile dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, west London, partnering with the formidable Claude Johnson on the finish of 1903. The enterprise, initially underwritten by Rolls’s father, Lord Llangattock, imported and offered French Panhard and Mors vehicles, in addition to Minerva autos in-built Belgium. The enterprise seemingly flourished, however Rolls was pissed off that every one his inventory was designed and manufactured abroad. He might discover no automobile produced domestically that met his shoppers’ wants, or his personal requirements as each a educated engineer and a lifelong fanatic.

As 1904 dawned, the weather of a doubtlessly transformative partnership had been in place: Royce the gifted engineer seeking a market; Rolls the consummate salesman searching for a game-changing product. All that was wanted was one thing – or somebody – to carry them collectively.

HENRY EDMUNDS: THE CRUCIAL CONNECTION

Rolls had befriended Henry Edmunds by way of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club). Edmunds was a director of Royce Limited and had pushed one of many firm’s early 10 H.P. vehicles. His enthusiasm for the automobile was such that Rolls requested a gathering with its creator, which Edmunds duly organized. On returning to London from Manchester, Rolls advised Claude Johnson that he had discovered “the greatest motor engineer in the world”. Rolls agreed to promote all of the vehicles Royce might make and the remaining is, actually, historical past.

THE WORLD IN 1904

So a lot for the personalities. What of the world and context through which Rolls-Royce was shaped?

Much of what’s taken without any consideration in the present day was nonetheless many years sooner or later – certainly, many issues now thought-about important wouldn’t arrive till the next century. From the vantage level on the time of writing in 2024, 1904 appears like historical historical past: a grainy, distant, black-and-white world indifferent from our personal instances and experiences.

Rolls and Royce met in a world with out tv, penicillin or FM radio. Construction work had simply begun on the Panama Canal; The RMS Titanic wouldn’t set sail on her fateful maiden voyage for one more eight years. King Edward VII was two years into his reign, having succeeded his mom, Queen Victoria, in 1902 – the 12 months that additionally noticed the tip of the Boer War, one 12 months previous to Wilbur and Orville Wright making the world’s first flight in a powered plane. Arthur Balfour was British Prime Minister, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was President of the United States and Franz Joseph I used to be Emperor of Austria-Hungary.

The motor automobile, too, was nonetheless in its infancy; Karl Benz had produced the primary ‘true’ petrol-powered car – albeit with simply three wheels – in 1886, and motoring remained largely a pastime for daring, well-heeled lovers like Charles Rolls. The world must wait till 1913, when Henry Ford displayed the world’s first shifting meeting line, for vehicles to develop into accessible and inexpensive to nearly all of the inhabitants.

But the seeds of our trendy life had been there. This was the belle époque, an unusually protracted interval of peace and political stability in Europe that gave rise to financial confidence and prosperity, which in flip inspired a surge in innovation. The previous 20 years alone had seen the invention of the vacuum cleaner, electrical oven, dry-cell battery, ballpoint pen, cinema, pneumatic tyre, x-rays and radio. The nice technical marvel of 1904 was City of Truro, the primary steam locomotive on the earth to exceed 100mph – a document that stood for 30 years.

There had been important social and cultural advances, too, with the appointments of Britain’s first black mayor, and first feminine college professor. The London Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural live performance and the Coliseum Theatre opened within the West End. Literary circles had been graced by titans together with Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy and P. G. Wodehouse; live performance halls and opera homes premiered works by Debussy, Sibelius, Ravel, Elgar, Puccini, and Mahler. New varieties of music additionally bloomed, because the syncopated rhythms that will inform Jazz proliferated by way of Ragtime.

It was into this terribly fertile, dynamic and optimistic age that Rolls-Royce was born. A time through which visionaries and pioneers would form how the world thought, functioned and behaved for years or many years to return; precisely what Rolls and Royce did with their new motor automobile.

By constructing a machine whose engineering, efficiency, reliability and sturdiness surpassed the whole lot that had gone earlier than, Royce and Rolls set the usual not just for all of the Rolls‑Royce fashions that will observe, however for the motor automobile itself. In so doing, they formed a know-how that will rework work, journey, communications, communities, infrastructure, design, know-how, supplies society, politics, economics and tradition in methods they might by no means have predicted.

A PERMANENT LEGACY

Rolls and Royce fulfilled their mission to create ‘the best car in the world’. They gave their names to a dynasty of motor vehicles that outlined, and continues to outline, superluxury motoring internationally.

But maybe their crowning achievement is to have made Rolls-Royce the worldwide exemplar of excellence. Practically each product, service, gadget and know-how that has been invented since 1904 has aspired to be ‘the Rolls-Royce of…’ its business or sector. The customary they set 120 years in the past continues to be driving innovation and enchancment in all places – together with throughout the firm they created.

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ROLLS-ROYCE ‘MODELS OF THE MARQUE’: THE 1900s – THE ROYCE 10 H.P. & ROLLS-ROYCE 10 H.P.

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  • A short historical past of the Royce 10 H.P., the primary motor automobile constructed by Henry Royce, and the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P., the inaugural mannequin for the newly established marque
  • First in a collection celebrating a landmark mannequin from every decade of the marque’s historical past, from its foundational years within the 1900s to the up to date Goodwood period
  • Year-long retrospective marks the a hundred and twentieth anniversary of the primary assembly between Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904
  • Each motor automobile represents important developments in design, development, engineering, and know-how that proceed to affect the marque’s merchandise in the present day


“We begin this retrospective series with not one, but two motor cars built by Henry Royce in the early 20th Century. The Royce 10 H.P., completely reengineered from an existing, well-regarded machine, was the catalyst for the partnership between our founders; the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P. was the first motor car built and sold under the Rolls-Royce name, setting a template for the company and its products that endures to this day. These models are inseparable in their origins and the story of the company’s foundation. Individually and together, they have a unique place in our history and therefore deserve equal recognition in the pantheon of early Rolls‑Royce motor cars.”
 Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

In 1903, electrical engineer Henry Royce was working his personal manufacturing firm in Manchester. Though profitable, bother was brewing for Royce and different British corporations, within the type of a rising tide of cheaper, imported electrical items. Ever the perfectionist, Royce refused to decrease his requirements to compete, and as a substitute regarded to diversify into new areas. It was a choice that will change historical past.

In September 1902, Royce had purchased a small French automobile, a ten H.P. Decauville. It was a extremely regarded mannequin from a well-respected make, and among the many best accessible at the moment. Characteristically, nevertheless, Royce swiftly recognized quite a few flaws and weaknesses in its design, engineering and development.

Earlier that 12 months, he had learn a newly printed ebook, The Automobile: Its Construction and Management. This satisfied him to make use of the Decauville as the idea for a greater motor automobile of his personal. He started by fastidiously dismantling it, making detailed notes and drawings of each element. His new design sensibly retained a few of its key options, but additionally launched a plethora of revolutionary enhancements to the bearings, radiator, carburation and transmission.

He was additionally obsessive about decreasing the motor automobile’s total weight, which he achieved by means of meticulous engineering and metallurgy, along with less complicated measures like meting out with the Decauville’s solid bronze warning bell that alone weighed round 20kg (over 40lb). Perhaps most importantly, Royce designed and constructed his personal twin-cylinder engine, the primary within the lengthy line of legendary powerplants for each motor vehicles and plane he would create throughout his distinguished profession.

On 1 April 1904, his first full motor automobile – the Royce 10 H.P. – took to the street for the primary time. For Royce, and the world, nothing would ever be the identical once more.

Meanwhile, in London, an aristocratic motoring and aviation pioneer had opened considered one of Britain’s first automobile dealerships in 1902. He was The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls and enterprise was booming, however Rolls was pissed off that each one his inventory was designed and manufactured abroad; no automobile produced domestically met his shoppers’ wants, or his personal requirements as a Cambridge-educated engineer and profitable aggressive driver.

A good friend, Henry Edmunds, had been loaned one of many first manufacturing examples of Royce’s new 10 H.P. motor automobile. It was, he enthused, precisely what Rolls was on the lookout for. On 4 May 1904, on the behest of his good friend Edmunds, Rolls travelled to Manchester to fulfill Royce and check out the motor automobile. Though fully totally different in background and temperament, the 2 males bonded instantly, and Rolls was smitten with the motor automobile. There after which, he declared he would promote each motor automobile Royce may make, by means of a brand new firm and beneath a brand new title: Rolls-Royce.

Launched the identical 12 months, their first motor automobile, the Rolls-Royce 10 H.P., was an analogous twin-cylinder mannequin derived from the sooner Royce vehicles, however with many additional design and mechanical enhancements. Through this diminutive however epochal motor automobile, the fledgling model quickly gained the fame for engineering excellence, consolation, efficiency and reliability it retains 120 years later.

By 1905, Rolls-Royce had added three, 4 and six-cylinder fashions, whose successes in each trials and gross sales have been constructed on the twin-cylinder 10 H.P. mannequin’s foundations. All completely embodied Royce’s most well-known ideas, which nonetheless encourage the marque in the present day: “Take the best that exists and make it better,” and “If it doesn’t exist, design it.”

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ROLLS-ROYCE ‘MAKERS OF THE MARQUE’: HENRY ROYCE

HENRY ROYCE: 27 MARCH 1863 – 22 APRIL 1933

  • Second in a sequence profiling the principal characters within the Rolls-Royce basis story because the marque celebrates its 120th anniversary this yr
  • Each story is launched on the topic’s delivery date, including an additional anniversary to the marque’s personal commemorations
  • Their lives, careers, personalities and intertwined relationships all had a profound affect on the creation, improvement and lasting legacy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
  • Underlines the important human dimension behind ‘the best car in the world’

 
 “Henry Royce’s life followed a truly extraordinary arc. From impoverished origins and with minimal formal education, he became a giant of 20th Century engineering and innovation, responsible for designs and technology that helped shape the world we live in now. But this classic rags-to-riches tale belies the complexity of the man, and understates the many challenges he faced during his remarkable life. After 120 years, his influence on the marque he co-founded remains powerful and pervasive; he literally made us who we are today.”
 Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Communications and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Frederick Henry Royce was born on 27 March, in 1863 at Alwalton, close to Peterborough. He was the youngest of 5 youngsters in a household with dire monetary issues: Henry’s father was lastly declared bankrupt and, underneath the regulation of the time, imprisoned. This early poverty and hardship would have an effect on Royce’s character, and his well being, for the remainder of his life.

Aged simply 10, Royce began working in London, first as a newspaper vendor and later as a telegram supply boy. Then in 1877, with monetary help from his aunt, he secured a coveted apprenticeship on the Great Northern Railway (GNR) workshops in Peterborough. His pure aptitude for design and dealing together with his palms had been instantly apparent. A set of three miniature wheelbarrows he made in brass demonstrated the exacting requirements he would set for himself and others all through his profession.

But two years later, his aunt’s personal cash troubles left her unable to pay his annual apprenticeship price. Undaunted, Royce returned to London and, in 1881, started work on the fledgling Electric Lighting & Power Generating Company (EL&PG). Electricity was then so new it had no skilled establishments, and subsequently no formal examinations or entry {qualifications}. For Royce, who had solely probably the most rudimentary education, this was a priceless benefit.

His fascination for the topic, formidable work ethic and dedication to enhancing himself (he attended night lessons in English and Mathematics after work) meant that in 1882, the EL&PG, by now renamed the Maxim-Weston Electric Company, despatched him to handle the set up of road and theatre lighting in Liverpool. But when the corporate abruptly went bust, Royce, nonetheless solely 19, once more discovered himself unemployed.

But not for lengthy. In late 1884, he based F H Royce & Co in Manchester. Initially producing small gadgets comparable to battery-powered doorbells, the corporate progressed to creating overhead cranes, railway shunting capstans and different heavy industrial gear.

By 1901, years of overwork and a strained house life had been taking a extreme toll on his well being, which had in all probability been completely weakened by the privations of his childhood. Matters worsened the next yr when the corporate discovered its funds stretched, owing to an inflow of cheaper imported electrical equipment that undercut its costs. Ever the perfectionist, Royce was not ready to compromise the standard of his merchandise, however the ensuing pressure meant that in 1902, his well being collapsed utterly.

Royce’s medical doctors prescribed full relaxation and persuaded him to take a 10-week vacation together with his spouse’s household in South Africa. On the lengthy voyage, he learn a newly printed ebook, ‘The Automobile – Its Construction and Management’. What he discovered would change his life – and in the end, the world.

On his return to England, absolutely revitalised, Royce acquired his first motor automotive, a French-built 10 H.P. Decauville. The story normally goes that this primary automotive was so poorly made and unreliable that Royce determined he may do higher. In reality, his vacation studying had already centered his thoughts on producing his personal automotive. He selected the Decauville exactly as a result of it was one of many most interesting vehicles obtainable to him, with a purpose to dismantle it after which, in his most well-known phrase, ‘take the best that exists and make it better’.

He started by constructing three two-cylinder 10 H.P. vehicles, primarily based on the Decauville structure. With these foundational machines, he demonstrated the analytical method, consideration to element and pursuit of excellence in design and manufacture that had been the hallmarks of his life.

His buddy and enterprise affiliate, Henry Edmunds, borrowed certainly one of these authentic Royce 10H.P. vehicles to finish within the 1,000-mile Slide Slip Trials organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club, or RAC) in April 1904. Edmunds was enormously impressed, and realised this was exactly the high-quality, British-made mannequin {that a} buddy and fellow Club member was on the lookout for to inventory in his new London automotive dealership. That buddy was, in fact, The Hon Charles Stewart Rolls.

As the technical mastermind behind the brand new partnership, Royce’s output was astoundingly and relentlessly prolific. From the corporate’s basis in 1904 till his demise in 1933, he personally created the preliminary idea for each mechanical merchandise in each Rolls-Royce motor automotive. An instinctive, intuitive engineer, he had an uncanny means to evaluate elements purely by eye. He firmly believed that if one thing regarded proper, it in all probability was – and he was virtually invariably proved right.

As demand grew, and the motor vehicles themselves grew to become more and more advanced, he established a design group, ruled by his maxim, ‘Rub out, alter, improve, refine’. Everything the group produced would then both be rejected and despatched again for extra work, or lastly signed off, by Royce alone. In distinction to trendy motor manufacturing, the place fashions are launched, up to date and changed at outlined intervals, Royce made steady enhancements to his merchandise, with none announcement or discover. Some of those enhancements had been tiny – a washer right here, a hose-clip there – however the internet impact was that just about no two Rolls-Royce motor vehicles had been precisely alike in each element. This system, allied with Royce’s relentless pursuit of excellence in all he did and supervised, made Rolls-Royce motor vehicles the closest factor to mechanical perfection potential, given the data and know-how of the day.

It is value restating that Royce by no means designed an entire automotive: as much as 1949, Rolls-Royce produced solely ‘rolling chassis’, geared up with engine and drivetrain, upon which a specialist coachbuilder then constructed bodywork to the client’s specification. The rolling chassis did, nonetheless, embrace the bulkhead (the panel separating the engine compartment from the passenger cabin) and the radiator, which decided, no less than partially, the completed motor automotive’s total proportions.

A extremely pushed – some may say obsessive – man, Royce introduced his meticulous, enquiring thoughts and insatiable urge for food for arduous work to each facet of his life. Such is the facility of his ethos, it nonetheless informs and evokes the corporate that bears his identify 120 years later.

Motorcycles

All About The MTT 420-RR Turbine Powered Motorcycle

With a Rolls Royce Allison 250-C20 turbine engine, how simple is it to fill the gasoline tank of the MTT 420-RR? If it solely ran on jet gasoline, this bike could be not solely the quickest on the planet, but in addition probably the most inconvenient. Fortunately, the engineers at Marine Turbine Technologies had been considering forward in the course of the 420-RR’s creation, and made it doable to make the most of diesel, kerosene, or jet gasoline to energy the bike.

However, whereas the MTT 420-RR can settle for a number of types of gasoline for added comfort, it additionally rapidly burns by means of it. The gasoline tank capability is eight and a half gallons, however this would possibly not get you far. You’ll have to refuel roughly across the 60-mile mark, because it’s gasoline economic system is round 7-8 miles per gallon. This determine additionally depends upon how briskly you are touring. The turbine absolutely engages when you attain freeway cruising speeds, and the upper your velocity, the quicker your gasoline consumption.

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SIR FREDERICK HENRY ROYCE, 1st BARONET, OBE

INTRODUCTION
For all his many honours and achievements, Sir Frederick Henry Royce OBE was a humble man, referring to himself simply as ‘a mechanic’. 90 years after his death, his technical genius and engineering philosophy – the pursuit of excellence – continue to inspire the company that bears his name.

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Henry Royce was born in Alwalton, near Peterborough, on 27 March 1863, the youngest of five children. When his father James, a miller, went bankrupt, the family fell on hard times. By the age of 10, Royce was lodging in London, selling newspapers at railway stations: the long hours and poor diet he endured during this period almost certainly contributed to the health problems he suffered in later life.

In 1876, he became a telegram delivery boy at the Mayfair Post Office in central London. His beat included 35 Hill Street, where a certain Charles Stewart Rolls was born on 27 August 1877. It’s thus perfectly possible that Royce delivered messages of congratulation to the proud parents of his future business partner.

In September of that year, Royce made his first foray into engineering, as an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway locomotive works in Peterborough. To make up for his lack of formal education, he attended evening classes in English and mathematics. Family financial problems struck once more, however, when his sponsor, one of his mother’s sisters, was unable to pay the £20 annual fee. Undaunted, the 17-year-old Royce set off on foot in search of work, eventually becoming a toolmaker in Leeds, on the princely wage of a penny an hour (2.44 old pence)!

In 1881, he returned to London to work in the fledging field of electrical engineering. His natural aptitude earned him, aged just 19, the position of Chief Electrician to a company supplying electric lighting to Liverpool. Even so, he continued to devote his spare time to his electrical engineering studies. By 1884, the company had gone bust, so Royce decided to use the money he’d saved to strike out on his own.

MAKING HIS NAME
Royce set up a small electrical and mechanical engineering company, F H Royce & Co, in Blake Street, Manchester. Within months his friend and fellow engineer, Ernest Claremont, joined him as a partner. From making simple electrical devices such as bell sets, fuses, switches and bulb holders, the business quickly expanded, producing everything from dynamos, electric motors and winches to cranes for the Manchester Ship Canal.

Over the next 15 years, the company, which became Royce Ltd in 1894, enjoyed sustained growth and financial success. However, the Boer War (1899-1902) combined with an influx of cheap mass-produced electrical products from Germany and the USA saw its sales contract sharply. Royce’s health, never robust, deteriorated until in 1902, it collapsed completely. His wife persuaded him to take a trip to South Africa to recover. He returned 10 weeks later, mentally and physically refreshed, and ready for a new challenge.

On the long sea voyage, Royce had read a book entitled The Automobile – Its Construction and Management, by French engineer Gerard Lavergne. Royce already owned a rudimentary motor vehicle – a De Dion quadricycle – but Lavergne’s work showed him just how far Britain had fallen behind France in automobile engineering.

Royce bought a second-hand two-cylinder Decauville on which to experiment. When the machine failed to start, he quickly rectified the problem; but having entirely dismantled the car and examined each component in detail, he identified a host of other potential improvements. In typical fashion, he decided that rather than modifying the French car, he could build a better one himself.

On 1 April 1904, the new Royce 10 HP car made its first run. Three weeks later, on the opening day of the Side Slip Trials endurance event, it covered the 145.5 miles from London to Margate and back at an average speed of 16.5 mph. In an age when motor cars were both noisy and temperamental, Royce’s machine had also proved itself exceptionally quiet and utterly reliable.

A MEETING OF MINDS
The driver at the Slip Side Trials was Henry Edmunds, managing director of one of Britain’s largest electric cable manufacturers (of which Royce’s business partner Ernest Claremont was a Director). Among Edmunds’ friends was The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls, an aristocratic, Cambridge-educated aviation pioneer and racing-driver, who sold French-built Panhard cars from his premises, C. S. Rolls & Co. at Lillie Hall, Fulham.

Edmunds persuaded Rolls to travel to Manchester to meet Royce and examine the Royce car. Despite their starkly contrasting backgrounds, and 14-year age difference, Rolls and Royce formed an instant rapport.

They agreed that Rolls would sell all the cars Royce could make, under the name ‘Rolls-Royce’. The arrangement allowed Royce to concentrate on designing and building the perfect machine, and Rolls to fulfil his ambition of selling his own line of the very finest English-built motor cars.

FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
Rolls-Royce Limited came into being in March 1906. In the same year, Royce produced his six‑cylinder 40/50 HP, the legendary Silver Ghost, and also began to design the company’s new works in Nightingale Road, Derby.

Over the next two decades, Royce continued to develop and refine his automotive designs, and also produced some of the world’s finest aero engines. Most famously, he produced the ‘R’ engine for R J Mitchell’s Supermarine S6 and S6B, which helped with the future development of the iconic Spitfire, with the ‘R’ engine the foundation for its legendary Merlin engine.

A LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT
During his long and varied career, Royce filed 301 patents – an astonishing feat for a largely self-educated engineer. He was awarded an OBE in 1918, and in 1930 he was made a Baronet – thus becoming Sir Henry Royce – for his services to aviation. With characteristic modesty, he wrote to all Rolls-Royce employees thanking them for their contribution to the honour.

THE PASSING OF A NATIONAL HERO
Sir Henry Royce spent his later years working at his homes in West Wittering in Sussex, and Le Canadel in the South of France. He died on 22 April 1933, after finally succumbing to long‑term illness resulting from poor nutrition in childhood, and a lifetime of overwork. Even on his deathbed, he sketched a design for the first adjustable shock absorber: the sketch, which still survives, is annotated by his nurse, Royce himself being too weak to write. That he was still producing original ideas in his final hours encapsulates his devotion to his craft, and the breadth and brilliance of his engineering mind.