From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'Motor Sport' magazine on the English tradition of the firm, its war efforts, and the history of its founders.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0258 | |
| Date | 1st January 1941 | |
| MOTOR SPORT 260 JANUARY, 1941 ON SOMETHING IN THE ENGLISH TRADITION "NEVER IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN CONFLICT WAS SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW."—THE PRIME MINISTER, OF THE R.A.F. FIGHTER PILOTS, 1940 THE firm of Rolls-Royce Ltd. is, perhaps, the most famous in the whole Motor Industry; indeed, it is so well known, and so highly respected, as to be virtually an institution. This was the case in the days before the last war with Germany, but it can fairly safely be said that not until now have so many people been so closely bound up with the activities of this great company, or so many able to experience such pride and satisfaction in its products' as is the case to-day. Practically the whole of the Fighter Command flies on Rolls-Royce engines. Lots of our most potent bombers rely on Rolls-Royce engines. Our learner pilots do their advanced training behind engines emanating from the firm of Rolls-Royce Ltd. So obviously more people are keenly interested in this firm than has ever been the case before, and scores of people not previously having had anything to do with its products now have very good reasons for regarding the magic initials R.{Sir Henry Royce}-R.{Sir Henry Royce} with considerable affection. Those great young men, of whom Mr. Churchill said in all sincerity that never before have so few rendered such service to so many, appreciate, perhaps more keenly than any, the worth of the Merlin. Pilots about to enter squadrons for active service have developed a real love for the Kestrel. Ground engineers and aircraftsmen know both motors well. When you consider what a vast organisation is our Royal Air Force you can well imagine that many thousands of young men, to say nothing of their knowledgeable and charming ladies (who so proudly wear the R.A.F. wings, whether in the form of a "Woolworth" brooch or a badge which some squadron-leader has conveniently "lost") centre their thoughts and conversation and pin their trust and hope very much in relation to matters R.{Sir Henry Royce}-R.{Sir Henry Royce} Bring in all those officials of the Air Ministry and those employees of outside firms whom the war has brought in close contact with Rolls-Royce in their various capacities, and it must be clearly evident that this great concern is, to-day, of real significance to a very great many people, who cannot fail to be interested in everything that has to do with it. Certainly, if you have been able to see Rolls-Royce getting down to its war tasks, as I have done, you will have experienced an immeasurable admiration for this wonderful organisation. Happy workers (very few of whom are not specialists at their own particular jobs), for R.{Sir Henry Royce}-R.{Sir Henry Royce} look after them well, tumble out of the works at lunch time or at the end of a "shift," the very essence of English liberty in oil-stained flannels or baggy boiler-suits. In the "mess," quiet-spoken gentlemen, quite a lot of them going more than a little bald, discuss technicalities as a hobby rather than as a hang-over from the morning's toil; they are ministered to under conditions and in a manner which would put many good-class restaurants to shame. In the offices, well lit and well furnished, but not at all ostentatious, each department works to keep control of and to guide, as it were, the great organisation existing without. In the shops I have seen aero-engines that might well have been on the company's stand at some international aero show, so clean were both they and their surroundings, whereas, in sober fact, they were even then in course of reassembly following a routine strip for overhaul. The dance music emanating from the radio which now entertains these war workers (who work as hard in the national cause as any uniformed troops) serves only to strengthen this impression, albeit no aero show ever held has contained so many motors, counting all the different makes together, as these shops can boast of one type alone. Standing by the test-beds—above which floats an ever-present steam cloud generated by coolant manually being passed out—you are, as fit for service, deafened by the blast from open exhausts, with oil-laden water spray blown over one by the air-stream from the dynamometer fans—these impressions crystallise. You go out through the gates of what is really a surprisingly humble-looking factory, into a dingy, trolley-bus-infested city of cheerless streets and cobbled pavements, and you feel proud of this organisation, which has built up such a great reputation, and which is even now maintaining and consolidating it, working as it has done for over a quarter of a century in a manner in keeping with the English tradition. A desire is created to further one's associations with the firm, and for most of us that implies learning something of its origin and history. Thanks to that excellent book, "The Magic of a Name," which Harold Nockolds wrote after he had been inspired, in his turn, by contact with R.{Sir Henry Royce}-R.{Sir Henry Royce}, and which Messrs. G.{Mr Griffiths - Chief Accountant / Mr Gnapp} T. Foulis and Co. Ltd. published some two years ago, we are able to do just that. Incidentally, the same Harold Nockolds who used to write "Continental Notes" for us in the now seemingly far-off days when there were Continental motor-races to write about. Nockolds has written up the history of Rolls-Royce in a most comprehensive and appropriate way and his book should be of very real appeal to all those war workers aforesaid, in uniform and out, who appreciate now what they were quite willing to believe before—that the firm of Rolls-Royce is an unique and essentially British organisation to whom only the best is good enough, down to the very last tab-washer or split-pin. It is an absorbing story which Nockolds has to tell. Frederick Henry Royce was born at Alwalton, Lincolnshire, the son of a miller, nearly seventy-eight years ago. His first job seems to have been that of newspaper boy to W. H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Smith and Son, a firm, incidentally, whose name in a household word was destined to be eclipsed in another sphere. Some years later Royce was apprenticed by a sympathetic, and perhaps far-seeing, aunt to the Great Northern Railway works at Peterborough, and a certain Mr. Yarrow, with whom he boarded, sent him a very long way towards a sound engineering career. His hard-won but invaluable experience prompted him to take an ambitious position with the Electric Light and Power Company in London and later a responsible position with the Lancashire Maxim and Western Electric Company. When the latter concern faded out, Royce set up in business on his own, in partnership with his friend A.{Mr Adams} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Claremont, with a capital of £70. As F.{Mr Friese} H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Royce and Company they made simple electrical appliances, and it was so commonplace an article as a household bell set which finally set the Company on its feet. Royce then perfected the dynamo, and from that time on he began really to prosper. From an eternity of work, study and virtual starvation, Royce emerged to a life of more conventional standards, and at the age of thirty he married a girl whose sister married his partner. Came the Boer War, and with it a flood of cheap electric cranes from America and Germany, which seriously cut into the market for the beautifully-made products which had for some years been the chief concern of F.{Mr Friese} H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Royce and Co. It was in the midst of this depression, with the future of his business anything but rosy, that Royce lost interest in electrical matters and spent nearly all his time playing with, and evolving improvements for, his Decauville motor car. And on April 1st, 1904, the first Rolls-Royce emerged from the doors of the Manchester factory. It was a 10 h.p. vertical-twin of 95 mm. x 127 mm., having coil ignition, a three-speed quadrant-change gearbox, live axle and a weight of 14½ cwt. From the commencement the 10 h.p. Royce proved a refined and reliable car, but, far from satisfied, its creator reverted to his old practice of long hours of work unpunctuated by food or rest and, aided by his loyal employees, carried out a very exacting process of evolution. In its more finalised form the two-cylinder Rolls-Royce was a very remarkable car, as the Hon. Charles Rolls and Claude Johnson were soon aware. These two gentlemen were running a motor business in London and Royce was introduced to them by Henry Edmunds, a director of Royce, Ltd., as the firm was now called, and on the committee of the A.C.G.B.I. C. S. Rolls and Co. agreed to absorb the entire output of the Royce factory. Rolls had a display of these cars on his stand at the 1904 Paris Salon, beside the Panhard and Minerva for which he was agent. For 1905 he was able to offer his distinguished clients a choice of 10 h.p. two-cylinder, 15 h.p. three-cylinder, 20 h.p. four-cylinder, or 30 h.p. six-cylinder Rolls-Royce cars, at respective chassis prices of £395, £500, £650 and £890. To-day, if you enter the waiting room at Derby, you will have in your company | ||