Charles Rolls

  1. The Daily Mirror front page, 13th July 1910. Coming just 40 days after his pioneering, two-way crossing of the Channel, Rolls’ violent death shocked the nation. He was the first British-born aviator to be killed in Britain, and was widely known to the public because of his motoring exploits and as co-founder of Rolls-Royce
  1. Rolls’ Wright Flyer over Dover Castle, 2nd June 1910, on his return from the two-way Channel crossing, the first non-stop double crossing, and the first ever crossing from England to France.
  1. Rolls in the basket of his one-man balloon, Imp. Balloons at that time were gas-filled (town gas), and were controlled in ascent and descent by releasing ballast sand (see the two sandbags in the picture) or gas.
  1. Preparing for the Channel flight, 2nd June 1910. Rolls is wearing a patent life-jacket, and one of the temporary floats added specially for the flight over water can be seen just under his left hand.
  1. Rolls as a young boy, aged about 10
  1. Cartoon showing Rolls driving one of the high-powered racing cars in which he won competitions and set world records in the period before the introduction of Rolls-Royce cars in 1904/5
  1. Rolls was a keen competitive cyclist, winning a ‘half-blue’ representing Cambridge University. The development of the modern ‘safety’ bicycle, and in particular Mr Dunlop’s pneumatic tyre, coincided with Rolls’ youth, and satisfied his love of speed until his first exploits in motor cars in the late 1890s.
  1. Frederick Henry Royce (1863-1933) was born near Peterborough, the son of a miller. He was apprenticed to the Great Northern Railway, worked in electrical and engineering firms, and set up in business making electrical filaments in 1884. His firm, Royce Ltd., prospered and he bought himself a car (a Decauville), but he was disappointed with its efficiency and decided to make one himself. By 1903 he had built an engine and fitted it to a car of his own design. He made two more. Charles Rolls, who already had a business selling cars, heard about Royce and travelled to Manchester to meet him. After a trial run Rolls agreed to take Royce’s whole output of cars, to be sold under the name Rolls-Royce. Within a year Royce had four models in production, and ‘C.S.Rolls & Co.’ was selling no other make.
  1. A caricature of Charles Rolls from Vanity Fair magazine. From 1868 to 1914 these gently satirical prints depicted ‘Men of the Day’, prominent characters from the worlds of politics, the law, sport, high-society and others.