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).
Collection of newspaper clippings regarding an auction of letters from the company's co-founder and a subsequent clarification letter.
| Identifier | Morton\M6\ img001 | |
| Date | 30th October 1972 | |
| Capital letters A series of letters and documents giving an unexpected insight into the precarious financial affairs of Rolls-Royce Ltd as far back as the late 1920s are to be auctioned at Sotheby's today. Written by the company's co-founder, Sir Frederick Henry Royce, between the years 1927-1931, the letters request the cooperation of management at the Royce plant, Manchester, in seeking economies. Sir Frederick writes: “You will realise that Royce Ltd have lost all the money I should have received for founding Rolls-Royce Ltd, and they look like costing me much more money before they get into a satisfactory condition, but my name is at stake to protect the shareholders, and I want Royce Ltd to be going well when I die… Remember that I am losing money, and bearing pain in many ways, so I hope you at Royce Ltd will do your very best to agree with one another to all pull together with me.” The letters ask the recipients to ensure that all adverts for Royce products are dignified, and to spend every penny that is necessary on production—“but not one too many”. Kept out Christopher Frere-Smith of the Keep Britain Out Campaign was feeling, despite his name, even less than usually fraternal towards the French yesterday. His organization booked a quarter page advertisement in Le Monde to coincide with the Paris summit, and though other Paris papers refused space on “political grounds”, Le Monde accepted on the sole condition that it should be in Saturday’s paper. Price £475. But the advertisement never appeared. No explanation, after Saturday’s paper had come and the committees had gone, was that the advertisement had been rejected on “political grounds”. Frere-Smith supposes that Le Monde felt they had already upset the British delegation quite enough with their leak of the French draft communique, for which they apologized on Friday. Continental shelf Whatever the post-summit Europhoria it is clearly going to take a long time for Continental flavour to penetrate the dales of Yorkshire or the fens of East Anglia. According to a recent survey of 1,000 British housewives undertaken by the official magazine European Community, these are the strongholds of traditional British culinary taste. Unlike their more indoctrinated kitchen colleagues in the South (47 per cent) and Wales and the South-West (32 per cent) only 14 per cent of the women in Yorkshire buy any foreign victuals at all. They are only slightly more cosmopolitan round East Anglia and the Midlands (18 per cent) and in Lancashire (19 per cent). Overall 38 per cent were found to be traditionalists whose view of Eurofood is: Germany—“sausages, sauerkraut, solid, uninteresting”; Spain—“food sloshed up together”; Italy—“like Spain but with pasta taking the place of rice”; France—“dishes complicated to prepare, with used a lot of veal meat”. What will frogeaters make of toad-in-the-hole? PHS THE TIMES 30-10-72 Henry Royce's firm From Mr R.{Sir Henry Royce} J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} Plummer Sir, PHS should do his homework more carefully. The letters he mentions (October 24) have no bearing on the financial affairs of Rolls Royce Ltd. Royce Ltd was a Manchester company concerned with the manufacture of cranes and similar engineering plant. Its only link with Rolls Royce Ltd was Henry Royce, who, as well as being concerned with Royce Ltd, was co-founder with Hon C. S. Rolls of Rolls Royce Ltd. Read in this context the letter PHS quotes makes sense. In the context provided by PHS it makes no sense at all. Yours faithfully, R.{Sir Henry Royce} J.{Mr Johnson W.M.} PLUMMER, Quorn Cottage, Street End Lane, Broad Oak, Heathfield, Sussex. | ||