“The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls lived a short but eventful life that epitomised the adventurous spirit of the age. Aristocratic, urbane and seemingly fearless, he was also a highly skilled engineer who explored the cutting edge of two new technologies – motoring and aviation – that were already changing the world. It’s easy to forget that he and Royce worked together for just six years before his death in 1910, aged just 32, making his achievements and influence all the more remarkable. Given the extraordinary and enduring magnitude of all they achieved in that short time, we remain inspired by their legacy, as we wonder what might have been.”
Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls was born on 27 August 1877, the third son of Lord and Lady Llangattock. Although his birthplace was recorded as 35 Hill Street, near Berkeley Square in London, his heart was always at the family’s ancestral home, The Hendre, in Monmouthshire, on the border of Wales and England.
It was here that his aptitude and enthusiasm for engineering first emerged. At the age of nine he installed an electric bell between his bedroom and the stables; a few years later he planned and supervised the installation of electricity in the main house. In an early demonstration of the persuasive powers that were to serve him so well in his later career, he persuaded Lord Llangattock to pay for it.
Rolls studied Mechanical and Applied Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his constant tinkering with imported European cars earned him the unflattering (but probably accurate) nickname “Dirty Rolls” from his fellow undergraduates. After earning his degree, he quickly made a name for himself as a racing driver, finishing fourth in his first race, the 1899 Paris to Boulogne. Four years later, he competed in the ill-fated Paris to Madrid race, in which 34 drivers and spectators perished. That same year, he set an unofficial land speed record of nearly 83 mph in his 80 HP Mors.
The other great love of Rolls’s life was aviation. He was a founder member of the Royal Aero Club, initially as a balloonist, making over 170 flights. He described his first trip in a powered airship in 1907 as “something worth living for; it was the conquest of the air”. In 1910, he became the first pilot in history to fly across the English Channel and back non-stop, earning him a personal message of congratulations from King George V and a newspaper tribute as “the greatest hero of the day”.
But it was in motoring that Rolls chose to make his living. In January 1902 he opened one of Britain’s first car dealerships, C.S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, west of London, importing and selling French Panhard and Mors cars, and Minerva vehicles built in Belgium. The cars sold well, but Rolls was concerned that no domestically produced car would meet the needs of his customers or his own standards as a trained engineer and lifelong enthusiast.
Among Rolls’s large social circle was Henry Edmunds, whom he had met through the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (later the Royal Automobile Club). Edmunds was a shareholder in Royce Limited and had been hugely impressed by the company’s first 10-horsepower Royce car, designed and built by Henry Royce, which he had driven on a 1,000-mile test.
It was one of those moments of serendipity that, in retrospect, seems inevitable: Edmunds realised that the Royce 10 HP was precisely the high-quality, British-built car that Rolls was looking for. Such was his enthusiasm that Rolls asked for a meeting with Royce, which Edmunds duly arranged on 4 May 1904 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. On his return to London, Rolls excitedly told his partner – and future Rolls-Royce managing director – Claude Johnson that he had found “the best motor engineer in the world” and that he would sell as many cars as Royce could make.
Rolls was the right man, in the right place, at the right time. A skilled engineer and enthusiast who understood cars intimately, he was also an astute businessman, with extensive connections in politics, industry, the media and even royalty. His quick mind immediately grasped the importance of marketing and public relations in promoting Rolls-Royce and its cars. He famously demonstrated the refinement of the Silver Ghost by balancing a glass of overflowing water on the radiator, with the engine running, thoroughly enjoying the reaction of his audience when not a drop was spilled.
By 1910, Rolls-Royce had firmly established itself as the world’s leading luxury car manufacturer. The company had outgrown its original premises and its factory in Derby had opened in July 1908. Its flagship model, the 40/50 bhp ‘Silver Ghost’, was in high demand following its dominant performances in a series of gruelling long-distance trials. It was a period of extraordinary innovation, expansion and commercial success that would rarely be repeated until the dawn of the Goodwood era in 2003.
Everything changed on 12 July 1910. Less than two months after his triumphant double crossing of the English Channel, Rolls was taking part in a flying competition at Bournemouth when the tailplane broke away from his Wright Flyer. The aircraft plunged to the ground, crashing into a tangle of masts and tarpaulin. Rolls was pronounced dead at the scene. He was the twelfth person in history to die in a flying accident, and the first Briton to lose his life in a powered aircraft. He was just 32 years old.
The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls combined a fine technical mind with a bold and adventurous spirit. It is no wonder that aviation and motor racing had such powerful, almost magical attractions for him, and he was a true pioneer in both fields. That he should have achieved so much in such a short life is extraordinary and inspiring; indeed, it is tempting to wonder, with regret, how much more he might have achieved.
He had an innate ability to see things that few could, with his forward-thinking nature perfectly encapsulated in an article he wrote for The Motor-Car Journal in 1900: “The electric motor car is perfectly quiet and clean. There is no smell or vibration, and they should be very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged. But for now, I do not anticipate their being very useful, at least for many years.” It would indeed take 120 years, but this statement proved prophetic with the launch of the Spectre, Rolls-Royce’s first all-electric car.
His legacy is assured. His boldness, his imagination and his willingness to always think big, to push the envelope and to attempt what has never been done before remain powerful and animating forces at the heart of the company that today bears his name. More than a century later, his imagination and courage live on at the home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex.
120th ANNIVERSARY
In 2024, Rolls-Royce marks the 120th anniversary of the first meeting between its founders, Henry (later Sir Henry) Royce and the Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls on 4 May 1904. The meeting, at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, was arranged by a mutual friend, Henry Edmunds. Rolls agreed to sell as many cars as Royce could make and the rest is, quite literally, history. Together, Royce and Rolls created what was soon dubbed ‘the world’s greatest car’ and gave their names to a dynasty of motoring that continues to define super-luxury motoring around the world.
La serie ‘Makers of the Marque’ de Rolls-Royce:
- Henry Edmunds, born March 19, 1853
- Sir Henry Royce, born March 27, 1863
- Eleanor Thornton, born April 15, 1880
- Ernest Hives, born April 21, 1886
- Lord John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, born 10 June 1866
- The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls, born 27 August 1877
- Claude Johnson, born October 24, 1864
- Charles Sykes, born December 18, 1875
- Eric Platford, born February 25, 1883
La serie ‘Models of the Marque’ de Rolls-Royce:
- 1900s: Royce 10 HP / Rolls-Royce 10 HP
- Década de 1910: Rolls-Royce 40/50 H.P. ‘Silver Ghost’
- 1920s: Rolls-Royce 20 HP the ‘twenty’
- 1930s: Rolls-Royce Phantom III