Charles Rolls

Biography

Charles Stewart Rolls was born in Berkeley Square, London, on 27 August 1877. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read mechanical and applied science and graduated in 1898. In 1896 he bought his first car, a Peugeot Phaeton, in Paris, and in 1901 he helped found the ballooning club that later became the Royal Aero Club.

In January 1903 he opened the car business C. S. Rolls & Co. at Lillie Hall in Fulham, with £6,600 from his father. He met Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 4 May 1904. On 23 December he agreed to take all the cars Royce could make and sell them as Rolls-Royces. When Rolls-Royce Limited was formed in 1906 he became its technical managing director, and at the end of that year he crossed to the United States to promote the cars.

Flying took more of his time from then on. In October 1908 he went up with Wilbur Wright near Le Mans. At the end of 1909 he became a non-executive director, and on 12 March 1910 the Royal Aero Club issued him its second pilot's licence. On 2 June 1910 he flew non-stop across the English Channel and back in 95 minutes. Rolls was killed on 12 July 1910 when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a display at Bournemouth. He was the first Briton to die in a powered-aircraft accident.