Henry Royce - Development of Rolls-Royce

Development of Rolls-Royce

Royce had always worked hard and was renowned for never eating proper meals which resulted in his being taken ill first in 1902 and again in 1911. Ill health had forced his move away from Derby in 1912. In the same year, he had a major operation in London and was given only a few months to live by the doctors. In spite of this he returned to work but was prevented from visiting the factory, which had moved to larger premises, fitted out to detailed plans by Royce, in Derby in 1908. He insisted on checking all new designs and engineers and draughtsmen had to take the drawings to be personally checked by him, a daunting prospect with his well-known perfectionism. He had a house built at Le Canadel in the south of France and a further home at Crowborough, East Sussex. In 1917, Henry Royce moved to the village of West Wittering, West Sussex.

In October 1928 he began design of the "R" engine while walking with some of his leading engineers on the beach at West Wittering, sketching ideas in the sand. Less than a year later the “R” engine designed in his studio in the village set a new world air speed record of 357.7 miles per hour and won the Schneider Trophy of 1929. When the Ramsay MacDonald Government decided not to finance the next attempt in 1931, Lucy, Lady Houston felt that Britain must on no account be left out of this contest. She wired the Prime Minister that she would guarantee £100,000 if necessary towards the cost leaving the Government with no alternative but to reverse their previous decision. The result was that Royce found that the "R" could be made to produce more power and the Supermarine S.6B seaplane won the Trophy at 340.08 mph (547.31 km/h) on 13 September 1931. Later that month on the 29th, the same aircraft with an improved engine flew at 407.5 mph (655.8 km/h) – becoming the first craft to fly at over 400 mph (640 km/h) and breaking the world's speed record.