Charles Rolls
Encyclopedia
Charles Stewart Rolls was a motoring and aviation pioneer. Together with Frederick Henry Royce
he co-founded the Rolls-Royce
car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident, when the tail of his Wright Flyer
broke off during a flying display near Bournemouth
, England. He was aged 32.
, London
, third son of the 1st Baron Llangattock
. Despite his London birth, he retained a strong family connection with his ancestral home of The Hendre
, near Monmouth
, Wales
. After attending Mortimer Vicarage Preparatory School
in Berkshire
, he was educated at Eton College
where his developing interest in engines earned him the nickname dirty Rolls.
In 1894 he attended a private crammer
in Cambridge which helped him gain entry to Trinity College, Cambridge
where he studied Mechanical and Applied Science. In 1896, at the age of 18, he travelled to Paris to buy his first car, a Peugeot
Phaeton
, and joined the Automobile Club of France
. His Peugeot is believed to have been the first car based in Cambridge, and one of the first three cars owned in Wales. An early motoring enthusiast, he joined the Self-Propelled Traffic Association which campaigned against the restrictions imposed on motor vehicles by the Locomotive Act
, and became a founder member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain
with which it merged 1897.
Rolls graduated from Cambridge University in 1898, and began working on the steam yacht
Santa Maria followed by a position at the London and North Western Railway
in Crewe
. However, his talents lay more in salesmanship and motoring pioneering than practical engineering; in January 1903, with the help of £6,600 provided by his father, he started one of Britain's first car dealerships, C.S.Rolls & Co. based in Fulham
, to import and sell French Peugeot
and Belgian Minerva vehicles.
Rolls was a tall man, standing at about 1.95 m (6'5").
by a friend at the Automobile Club, Henry Edmunds, who was also a director of Royce Ltd. Edmunds showed him Royce's car and arranged the historic meeting between Rolls and Royce at the Midland Hotel
, Manchester
, on 4 May 1904. In spite of his preference for three or four cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the two-cylinder Royce 10 and in a subsequent agreement of 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. These would be of two, three, four and six cylinders and would be badged as Rolls-Royces.
The first Rolls-Royce car, the Rolls-Royce 10 hp
, was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904, although in the early advertising it was the name of Rolls that was emphasised over that of Royce. In 1906 Rolls and Royce formalised their partnership by creating Rolls-Royce Limited, with Rolls appointed Technical Managing Director on a salary of £750 per annum plus 4% of the profits in excess of £10,000. Rolls provided the financial backing and business acumen to complement Royce's technical expertise. In 1907 Rolls-Royce Limited bought out C.S. Rolls & Co.
Rolls put much effort into publicising the quietness and smoothness of the Rolls-Royce, and at the end of 1906 travelled to the USA to promote the new cars. The company was winning awards for the quality and reliability of its cars by 1907. But by 1909 Rolls' interest in the business was waning, and at the end of the year he resigned as Technical Managing Director and became a non-executive director
.
and initially, balloonist, making over 170 balloon ascents. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club
in 1903 and was the second person in Britain to be licensed to fly by it. In 1903 he also won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time.
By 1907 Rolls' interest turned increasingly to flying, and he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Royce to design an aero engine. In 1909 he bought one of six Wright Flyer aircraft built by Short Brothers
under licence from the Wright Brothers
, and made more than 200 flights. On 2 June 1910, he became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel
by plane, taking 95 minutes – faster than Blériot
. For this feat, which included the first East-bound crossing of the English Channel, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club. There is a statue to commemorate the flight in the town square at Monmouth and at Dover.
On 12 July 1910, at the age of 32, Rolls was killed in an air crash at Hengistbury Airfield Bournemouth
when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, and the eleventh internationally. A statue in his memory, in which he is seen holding a biplane model, was erected in Agincourt Square, Monmouth
. A further memorial to him is situated in the bottom playing field of St Peter's School
, which was built on the site of Hengistbury Airfield. There is also a statue of him beside Dover harbour in Kent
as a memorial to him being the first person to cross the channel in both directions during one flight, on June 2, 1910.
His grave lies in a little known corner of Monmouthshire
at the church of Llangattock-Vibon-Avel
, where many of the Rolls family lie buried in various family tombs. His grave is just below Llangattock Manor and bears the inscription Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Henry Royce
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, OBE was a pioneering car manufacturer, who with Charles Stewart Rolls founded the Rolls-Royce company.-Early life:...
he co-founded the Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident, when the tail of his Wright Flyer
Wright Flyer
The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.The U.S...
broke off during a flying display near Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, England. He was aged 32.
Early life
Rolls was born in Berkeley SquareBerkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a town square in the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, third son of the 1st Baron Llangattock
John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock
John Allan Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, DL owned The Hendre, a Victorian mansion north of Monmouth.- Biography :He was the only son of John Etherington Welch Rolls and his wife Elizabeth Mary Long...
. Despite his London birth, he retained a strong family connection with his ancestral home of The Hendre
The Hendre
The Hendre is Monmouthshire's only full-scale Victorian country house, constructed in the Victorian Gothic style...
, near Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. After attending Mortimer Vicarage Preparatory School
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, he was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
where his developing interest in engines earned him the nickname dirty Rolls.
In 1894 he attended a private crammer
Cram school
Cram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities...
in Cambridge which helped him gain entry to Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
where he studied Mechanical and Applied Science. In 1896, at the age of 18, he travelled to Paris to buy his first car, a Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
Phaeton
Phaeton body
A Phaeton is a style of open car or carriage without proper weather protection for passengers. Use of this name for automobiles was limited to North America or its products....
, and joined the Automobile Club of France
French Automobile Club
The Automobile Club of France is a men's club founded on November 12, 1895 by Albert de Dion, Paul Meyan, and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron, Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt....
. His Peugeot is believed to have been the first car based in Cambridge, and one of the first three cars owned in Wales. An early motoring enthusiast, he joined the Self-Propelled Traffic Association which campaigned against the restrictions imposed on motor vehicles by the Locomotive Act
Locomotive Act
The Locomotive Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom to control the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on British public highways during the latter part of the 19th century...
, and became a founder member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain
Royal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a private club and is not to be confused with RAC plc, a motorists' organisation, which it formerly owned.It has two club houses, one in London at 89-91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School...
with which it merged 1897.
Rolls graduated from Cambridge University in 1898, and began working on the steam yacht
Steam yacht
A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.-Origin of the name:...
Santa Maria followed by a position at the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
in Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
. However, his talents lay more in salesmanship and motoring pioneering than practical engineering; in January 1903, with the help of £6,600 provided by his father, he started one of Britain's first car dealerships, C.S.Rolls & Co. based in Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, to import and sell French Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
and Belgian Minerva vehicles.
Rolls was a tall man, standing at about 1.95 m (6'5").
Partnership with Royce
Rolls was introduced to Henry RoyceHenry Royce
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, OBE was a pioneering car manufacturer, who with Charles Stewart Rolls founded the Rolls-Royce company.-Early life:...
by a friend at the Automobile Club, Henry Edmunds, who was also a director of Royce Ltd. Edmunds showed him Royce's car and arranged the historic meeting between Rolls and Royce at the Midland Hotel
Midland Hotel (Manchester)
The Midland is a 312 bedroom grand hotel situated in Manchester city centre, in North West England. Opened in September 1903, it was built by the Midland Railway to serve the adjacent Manchester Central railway station...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, on 4 May 1904. In spite of his preference for three or four cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the two-cylinder Royce 10 and in a subsequent agreement of 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. These would be of two, three, four and six cylinders and would be badged as Rolls-Royces.
Rolls-Royce 10 hp
The Rolls-Royce 10 hp was the first car to be produced as a result of an agreement of 23 December 1904 between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, and badged as a Rolls-Royce. The 10 hp was produced by Royce's company, Royce Ltd., at its factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, and was sold...
, was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904, although in the early advertising it was the name of Rolls that was emphasised over that of Royce. In 1906 Rolls and Royce formalised their partnership by creating Rolls-Royce Limited, with Rolls appointed Technical Managing Director on a salary of £750 per annum plus 4% of the profits in excess of £10,000. Rolls provided the financial backing and business acumen to complement Royce's technical expertise. In 1907 Rolls-Royce Limited bought out C.S. Rolls & Co.
Rolls put much effort into publicising the quietness and smoothness of the Rolls-Royce, and at the end of 1906 travelled to the USA to promote the new cars. The company was winning awards for the quality and reliability of its cars by 1907. But by 1909 Rolls' interest in the business was waning, and at the end of the year he resigned as Technical Managing Director and became a non-executive director
Non-executive director
A non-executive director or outside director is a member of the board of directors of a company who does not form part of the executive management team. He or she is not an employee of the company or affiliated with it in any other way...
.
Pioneer aviator
Rolls was also a pioneer aviatorAviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
and initially, balloonist, making over 170 balloon ascents. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls , partly inspired by the Aero Club of France...
in 1903 and was the second person in Britain to be licensed to fly by it. In 1903 he also won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time.
By 1907 Rolls' interest turned increasingly to flying, and he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Royce to design an aero engine. In 1909 he bought one of six Wright Flyer aircraft built by Short Brothers
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s...
under licence from the Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
, and made more than 200 flights. On 2 June 1910, he became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
by plane, taking 95 minutes – faster than Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
. For this feat, which included the first East-bound crossing of the English Channel, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club. There is a statue to commemorate the flight in the town square at Monmouth and at Dover.
Death
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, and the eleventh internationally. A statue in his memory, in which he is seen holding a biplane model, was erected in Agincourt Square, Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
. A further memorial to him is situated in the bottom playing field of St Peter's School
St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School
St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School is a Roman Catholic Academy in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is run under the joint trusteeship of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth and a religious order of teachers, the De La Salle Brothers. The headmaster is Martyn Egan.St Peter's has achieved...
, which was built on the site of Hengistbury Airfield. There is also a statue of him beside Dover harbour in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
as a memorial to him being the first person to cross the channel in both directions during one flight, on June 2, 1910.
His grave lies in a little known corner of Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
at the church of Llangattock-Vibon-Avel
Llangattock-Vibon-Avel
Llangattock-Vibon-Avel is a rural parish in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located five miles west of Monmouth and some thirteen miles east of Abergavenny, just off the B4233 old road between the two.-Name:...
, where many of the Rolls family lie buried in various family tombs. His grave is just below Llangattock Manor and bears the inscription Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.