Rolls-Royce History

Charles Stewart Rolls 27 August 1877 to 12 October 1910 - 33 years


At the time Rolls was born F. H. Royce was resident in the Old Kent Road, London and may well have been a tenant of the Rolls' Estates and as he was a Post Office messenger until September 1877 when he was apprenticed to the Great Northern Railway, quite possibly delivered congratulatory telegrams to Mrs. Rolls on the birth of Charles. The Rolls family soon acquired a permanent London address - South Lodge, Rutland Gate, South Kensington. Rolls attended Mortimer Vicarage Preparatory School in Berkshire and then Eton until March 1894. He installed a dynamo at The Hendre and wired part of the house. He crammed to gain entrance to Cambridge University at Trinity College where he was a keen cyclist and gained a half Blue in 1896 and made Captain 1897.



CSR made his first balloon flight on 8 September 1898. This is shown above.

In 1900 Rolls won the 1,000 miles reliability trial promoted by Lord Northcliffe and organised by his partner, Claude Johnson, also a founder member and Secretary of the Automobile Club. A picture of a similar Panhard motor car is shown below.

Claude Johnson.

In 1903 Rolls established a world land speed record of 93 mph in Dublin driving a 30 hp Mors. This was a French car models of which he imported and distributed.

In 1904, via a mutual friend and another founder member of the Automobile Club, a Mr. Henry Edmunds introduced Rolls to Royce about 4 May at the Midland Hotel, Manchester. Edmunds, pictured below, is known as the Godfather of Rolls-Royce and Claude Johnson The Hyphen in Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce came into being at Christmas 1904 and from then on the 10 hp cars were so named as they were previously called Royce cars.

Rolls went to the New York Motor Show to exhibit Rolls-Royce cars in 1906 and also attended an exhibition organised by the Aero Club of America and was introduced to the Wright Brothers. This meeting gradually directed Rolls' interest from balloons to powered flight.

In April 1910 Rolls purchased the French Wright with a Wright Bariquand engine. It was not Rolls-Royce powered because Royce, having collapsed at work in 1902, was yet to design a Rolls-Royce aero engine. This was a tail-less wheel-less model aircraft really of 1909 specification. Rolls was relieved Rolls-Royce Limited of some duties in January 1910 to pursue aircraft interests.

Rolls completed the first double crossing of the Channel - England/France/England on 2 June 1910 in total flying time 95 1/2 minutes.