Rolls-Royce Motor Cars PressClub · Article.
SIR FREDERICK HENRY ROYCE, 1st BARONET, OBE
22.04.2023 Press Release
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.
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Author.
Malika Abdullaeva
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
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.