Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With
Henry Royce
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, (27 March 1863 – 22 April 1933) was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877–1910) and Claude ...
, he co-founded the
Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, when the tail of his
Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display in
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Englis ...
. He was aged 32.
Early life
Rolls was born in
Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, ...
, London, third son of the
1st Baron Llangattock and
Lady Llangattock
Georgiana, Lady Llangattock, (28 February 1837 (baptised) – 1 April 1923), born Georgiana Marcia Maclean and after her marriage termed Georgiana Marcia Rolls, was a socialite, benefactor and an enthusiast for Horatio Nelson and associated na ...
. Despite his London birth, he retained a strong family connection with his ancestral home of
The Hendre
The Hendre, ( cy, Yr Hendre a farmer's winter residence; literally meaning old home) in Rockfield, is the only full-scale Victorian country house in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. The ancestral estate of the Rolls family, it was the chil ...
, near
Monmouth
Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. ...
, Wales. After attending Mortimer Vicarage
Preparatory School in Berkshire, he was educated at
Eton College where his developing interest in engines earned him the nickname "dirty Rolls".
In 1894, he attended a private
crammer
A cram school, informally called crammer and colloquially also referred to as test-prep or exam factory, is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high school ...
in Cambridge which helped him gain entry to
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
in 1895, where he studied mechanical and applied science. In 1896, at the age of 18, he travelled to Paris to buy his first car, a
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...
Phaeton, and joined the
Automobile Club of France
The Automobile Club of France (french: Automobile Club de France, links=no) (ACF) is a men's club founded on November 12, 1895 by Albert de Dion, Paul Meyan, and its first president, the Dutch-born Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nijevelt.
The Aut ...
. His Peugeot is believed to have been the first car based in Cambridge, and one of the first three cars owned in Wales. An early motoring enthusiast, he joined the Self-Propelled Traffic Association, which campaigned against the restrictions imposed on motor vehicles by the
Locomotive Act, and became a founder member of the
Automobile Club of Great Britain, with which the Association merged in 1897.
Rolls was a keen cyclist and spent time at Cambridge bicycle racing. In 1896, he won a
Half Blue and the following year became captain of the Cambridge University Bicycle Club.
[Aeroplane Accident, Mr Rolls Killed at Bournemouth. ''The Times'', Wednesday, 13 July 1910; pg. 12; Issue 39323]
Rolls graduated from Cambridge in 1898 and began working on the
steam yacht
A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.
Origin of the name
The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term ...
''Santa Maria'' followed by a position at the
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom.
In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
in
Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
.
However, his talents lay more in salesmanship and motoring pioneering than practical engineering; in January 1903, with the help of £6,600 provided by his father, he started one of Britain's first car dealerships,
C. S. Rolls & Co. based in
Lillie Hall
Lillie Hall was a disused roller skating or ice skating rink off Seagrave Road (just south of Roxby Place, next to the rail line), Fulham, London, that in 1902 (or January 1903) became Charles Rolls' first car showroom, to sell imported French Peu ...
,
Fulham, to import and sell French
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...
and Belgian
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Ro ...
vehicles.
Partnership with Royce
Rolls was introduced to
Henry Royce
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, (27 March 1863 – 22 April 1933) was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877–1910) and Claude ...
by a friend at the
Royal Automobile Club, Henry Edmunds, who was also a director of Royce Ltd. Edmunds showed him Royce's car and arranged the historic meeting between Rolls and Royce at the
Midland Hotel, Manchester, on 4 May 1904. In spite of his preference for three or four cylinder cars, Rolls was impressed with the two-cylinder Royce 10 and in a subsequent agreement of 23 December 1904 agreed to take all the cars Royce could make. These would be of two, three, four and six cylinders and would be badged as Rolls-Royces.
The first Rolls-Royce car, the
Rolls-Royce 10 hp
The Rolls-Royce 10 hp was the first car to be produced as a result of an agreement of 23 December 1904 between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, and badged as a Rolls-Royce. The 10 hp was produced by Royce's company, Royce Ltd., at its factor ...
, was unveiled at the
Paris Salon in December 1904, although in the early advertising it was the name of Rolls that was emphasised over that of Royce. In 1906 Rolls and Royce formalised their partnership by creating Rolls-Royce Limited, with Rolls appointed Technical managing director on a salary of £750 per annum plus 4% of the profits in excess of £10,000. Rolls provided the financial backing and business acumen to complement Royce's technical expertise. In 1907 Rolls-Royce Limited bought out C. S. Rolls & Co.
Rolls put much effort into publicising the quietness and smoothness of the Rolls-Royce, and at the end of 1906 travelled to the US to promote the new cars. The company was winning awards for the quality and reliability of its cars by 1907. But by 1909 Rolls' interest in the business was waning, and at the end of the year he resigned as Technical managing director and became a
non-executive director.
Pioneer aviator
Rolls was a pioneer aviator and initially, balloonist,
making over 170 balloon ascents. In 1903 he won the
Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time.
By 1907 Rolls' interest turned increasingly to flying and he tried to persuade Royce to design an aero engine. He became the second Briton to go up in an aeroplane. Piloted by
Wilbur Wright their flight on 8 October 1908 from Camp d'Auvours, eleven kilometres east of
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...
, lasted four minutes and twenty seconds. He bought one of six
Wright Flyer aircraft built by
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...
under licence from the
Wright Brothers and from early October 1909
made more than 200 flights. Founder in 1901 with
Frank Hedges Butler
Frank Hedges Butler (17 December 1855 – 27 November 1928) was a British wine merchant, and a founding member of the Aero Club of Great Britain.
Early life
Frank Hedges Butler was born in London on 17 December 1855, the fifth son of the wine ...
of the ballooning club that became the
Royal Aero Club in March 1910 he was the second person they licensed to fly an aeroplane.
[ – 12 March 1910] He became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the
English Channel by plane taking 95 minutes on 2 June 1910.
For this feat, which included the first eastbound aerial crossing of the English Channel, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club.
[ Louis Bleriot on 25 July 1909 and Count Jacques de Lesseps on 21 May 1910 crossed West-bound before him] There is a
statue in Monmouth to commemorate the flight and another, by
Kathleen Scott
Edith Agnes Kathleen Young, Baroness Kennet, FRBS (née Bruce; formerly Scott; 27 March 1878 – 25 July 1947) was a British sculptor. Trained in London and Paris, Scott was a prolific sculptor, notably of portrait heads and busts and als ...
, in
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...
.
Death
On 12 July 1910, at the age of 32, Rolls was killed in an air crash at
Hengistbury
Hengistbury Head (), formerly also called Christchurch Head, is a headland jutting into the English Channel between Bournemouth and Mudeford in the English county of Dorset. It is a site of international importance in terms of its archaeology ...
Airfield,
Southbourne,
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Englis ...
when the tail of his
Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, and the eleventh person internationally. His was also the first powered aviation fatality in the United Kingdom.
["Mr. Rolls is the tenth airman who has met with a fatal accident in a motor-driven flying machine, and he is the first Englishman who has sacrificed his life in the cause of modern aviation." (Aeroplane Accident, Mr Rolls Killed at Bournemouth. ''The Times'', Wednesday, 13 July 1910; pg. 12; Issue 39323)]
His grave lies at the churchyard of St Cadoc's Church, Llangattock-Vibon-Avel
Llangattock-Vibon-Avel ( cy, Llangatwg Feibion Afel) is a rural parish and former community, now in the community of Whitecastle in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located west of Monmouth and some east of Aberga ...
, where many of the Rolls family lie buried in various family tombs. His grave is just below Llangattock Manor and bears the inscription:
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."
A statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
in his memory, in which he is seen holding a biplane model, was erected in Agincourt Square, Monmouth. A further memorial to him was unveiled in 1981 in the bottom playing field of St Peter's Catholic School, Bournemouth, which was developed on the site of Hengistbury Airfield. There is a stained-glass window in All Saints' Church, Eastchurch
Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".
Aviation history
Eastch ...
on the Isle of Sheppey, dedicated jointly to Rolls and to fellow pioneer aviator Cecil Grace
Cecil Stanley Grace (1880 – 22 December 1910) was a pioneer aviator who went missing on a flight across the English Channel in 1910.
Family
Grace was born in Chile, the son of John William Grace of New York. His uncle was W. R. Grace, a ...
.
Image:MonRolls.jpg, Statue of Charles Rolls, Monmouth
__NOTOC__
A memorial statue to the aviation pioneer Charles Rolls stands in front of the Shire Hall, Monmouth, Shire Hall in Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Wales. The high bronze statue was designed by Goscombe John, S ...
Image:Charles Stewart Rolls, aviator - geograph.org.uk - 824750.jpg, Statue of Charles Rolls in Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...
Image:Llangattock-Vibon-Avel 11.jpg, Rolls family graves, Llangattock-Vibon-Avel
Llangattock-Vibon-Avel ( cy, Llangatwg Feibion Afel) is a rural parish and former community, now in the community of Whitecastle in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located west of Monmouth and some east of Aberga ...
, Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, wit ...
File:Charles Stewart Rolls, 1910.jpg, Charles Rolls (centre), 1910
File:All Saints, Eastchurch, Kent - Window - geograph.org.uk - 324764.jpg, Memorial window by Karl Parsons
Karl Bergemann Parsons (23 January 1884 – 30 September 1934) was a British stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
Early life, 1884 – 1898
Parsons was born in Peckham in south London on 23 January 1884, the 12th ...
at Eastchurch
Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".
Aviation history
Eastch ...
, KentA memorial to Charles Rolls was dedicated 12th July 2022, at Hengistbury Head, Southbourne, Dorset, between the car park and the Hiker cafe.
This was the same day, date and time as it was in 1910 at the time of his crash at Southbourne, Hampshire s it was at the timewhen the tail came off of his Wright Flyer during a flying display on the airfield at what is now St Peters School.
ith thanks to Stephen Robson, Chairman, Charles Rolls Heritage Trust.
Cultural Depictions
*Actor Robert Powell
Robert Powell (; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in '' Mahler'' (1974) and ''Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) and its s ...
portrays Rolls in the 1972-1973 miniseries '' The Edwardians''.
Note
References
External links
Charles Rolls Heritage Trust https://crht1910.org.uk/
*
* – More about Charles Rolls
* – Transcription of the report of his death in a contemporary newspaper
* – Old Photo of Rolls and the Royal Family
* – Charles Rolls goes on his first aeroplane flight with Wilbur Wright on 8 October 1908 at Camp D'Auvours, France
Charles Stewart Rolls Statue, Dover Seafront
– Post-renovation photograph and description
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolls, Charles
1877 births
1910 deaths
People from Westminster
People from Fulham
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
People educated at Eton College
Welsh aviators
People from Monmouthshire
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in England
Rolls-Royce people
British automobile designers
British founders of automobile manufacturers
Younger sons of barons
Members of the Early Birds of Aviation
English people of Welsh descent
British automotive pioneers
Burials in Wales
Monmouth, Wales
British balloonists
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1910
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
Welsh racing drivers
19th-century Welsh businesspeople