Mr Mayor, guests, ladies and gentlemen thank you for
inviting me today. We are here to commemorate the early and untimely death of
one of the greatest but least known Englishmen, Charles Stewart Rolls, known in
his day simply as ‘Charlie’.
By the time he died here, 104 years ago today he had
been educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he won a half Blue as a cyclist and
was already fascinated by matters mechanical. He owned the first car at the
university and also in Wales. There his father, Lord Llangattock, owned a vast
house, The Hendre, and 6000 acres of farmland as well as a property empire in
London, and an oceangoing yacht.
Charlie won the Thousand Mile Trial around Britain – the first car rally ever
held here and 3 million saw the cars – most of them for the first time. Rolls
at 22 thus became the best - known motorist in Britain.
He was a founder member and committee stalwart of
what became the Royal Automobile Club.
Rolls motor raced in Europe with modest success in
the great inter city races, Paris to Berlin, Paris to Vienna, and the infamous
Race to Death, Paris Madrid in 1903, when several competitors and spectators
were killed including one of the three brothers who founded Renault. Rolls and
John Montagu MP (later the first Lord Montagu), were in fact the first Britons
to race in France in 1899.
At the same time Rolls owned and ran a garage and
motor dealership in London – C.S.Rolls & Co. The firm employed 70 people
and had premises with space for 200 cars. At the same time he, with two others,
one of whom was his first serious female companion founded the Royal Aero Club.
He made 170 balloon flights (no Air Ambulance then!) and competed in
international balloon races.
He was a member of the quite separate Royal
Aeronautical Society and, through this, followed the progress in America of the
Wright Brothers forecasting as early as 1901 the certainty of powered flight.
Rolls unofficially became the World Land Speed record
holder in 1902 at 84mph on private roads at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, but
also found time to write extensively on motoring in both the Daily Mail and
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Two of his more whimsical instructions were typical
of his own self-deprecation and sense of fun:
DO NOT SPILL PETROL OVER YOUR CLOTHES AND THEN STRIKE
A MATCH TO LIGHT YOUR PIPE.
and
DO NOT LET A WILLING OSTLER FILL UP YOUR PETROL
TANK - WITH WATER
And yes, along the way in 1903 he lured Claude Johnson, the
gifted Secretary of the R.A.C. to work for him – Johnson later being dubbed the
hyphen in Rolls- Royce. Then, mere months later, Rolls despite initial
misgivings met Henry Royce and agreed to sell every car Royce could make, under
the name of Rolls-Royce.
Charlie, Claude and Henry: Rolls Hyphen Royce – the most
iconic British brand name both of today and all time.
Charlie drove a Rolls-Royce 20 to win a second ever Tourist
Trophy Race, held over 200 miles on the Isle of Man, by half an hour. In the
same year he broke the Monte Carlo to London record and at the end of the year
raced and won on a banked track in New York City beating all-comers.
He consulted in the early development of the Silver Ghost,
knowing that the aristocracy would buy British if it was the best, and by 1912
the Ghost was truly acknowledged as ‘the Best Car in the World’.
Flying then claimed him. He flew the Channel both ways in a
90 minutes flight in June 1910, the first to do so.
Also he convinced the British Army of the value of aviation
in a future war. He sold the Army its first plane – one of his – at a profit.
In the early summer of 1910 he gave some aviation ground instruction, before
dying here in front of 20,000 people on that fateful day in July.
Often dismissed as a celebrity, attention seeker and
motoring ‘scorcher’ was Rolls a great man? He was six foot five inches tall.
Well, how many achieve greatness – whatever this may mean -
at the age of 32.
Can you think of another, who achieved so much in such a
short time and also about whom so little is surprisingly known?
May I congratulate Stephen Robson and his friends on their
initiative in setting up the C.S.Rolls Memorial Trust to preserve Roll’s name.
The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Trust has existed for many
years quite rightly celebrating the stunning and long career of modest but
master engineer, Sir Henry Royce, both in luxury car and aero engine
development. Aero development gave Britain a war turning advantage in the shape
of Rolls-Royce powered Spitfires and Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain.
I think then it is only right and fair that history be
rebalanced through the C.S.Rolls Memorial Trust which will celebrate the life
of a daring, driven, resourceful young man – a man for his times and a man
whose achievements should long be remembered.
Thank you.
Bruce Lawson
www.charlesrollsofrollsroyce.com
