The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation
The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation was established in 1977 as a permanent resource devoted to
the life and works of Sir Frederick Henry Royce, OBE, to his distinguished colleagues and
successors, and to the advancement of engineering. Special emphasis is given to the encouragement
and support of apprentices and young engineers, and in perpetuating Sir Henry's engineering
philosophy - the pursuit of excellence.
It is a charitable trust substantially dependent upon donations and support from the Rolls-Royce
Enthusiasts’ Club (RREC) and is dedicated to the memory and engineering philosophy of Henry
Royce, his colleagues and successors.
The Foundations positive objective is the perpetuation and encouragement of the engineering
ordinance of Sir Henry. To this end the Foundation arranges exhibitions, open days and special
events for institutions, societies and private groups. It holds a number of authoritative lectures a year
and supports many annual awards, competitions, prizes and training schemes where the pursuit of
excellence is encouraged and can be identified. These cover a varying range of stand-alone awards
and prizes, bursaries and core funding support for appropriate partnerships. Illustratively, the
Foundation provides the prestigious “Sir Henry Royce Trophy” and the “Henry Edmunds Trophy”, both
nationally recognised, a variety of awards with professional Engineering Institutions (including the
IET), prizes with selected City Livery Companies, universities, educational charities such as the
Arkwright Scholarships Trust and public bodies. Its apprentice awards with the Ministry of Defence
are recognised as some of the most important for young apprentices. The Foundation maintains a
continuing review with its partners to match its incentives with needs and resources. Its educational
activities are a part of wider delivery of charitable objectives, especially the preservation of historic
archives for Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars and the conservation of other related artefacts.
Recent actions include prestigious awards for those working in archive conservation and it is actively
engaged in especial encouragement for younger people to pursue careers in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (“STEM”).
Biography of Sir Frederick Henry Royce (1863 – 1933)
Frederick Henry Royce was born in Alwalton,
Huntingdonshire, near Peterborough, the son of James and
Mary Royce and was the youngest of their five children. His
family ran a flour mill, but the business failed and the family
moved to London. His father died in 1872 and Henry Royce
had to go out to work selling newspapers and delivering
telegrams, having had only one year of formal schooling. At
the early age of 15, Royce was an engineer apprenticed to the
Great Northern Railway Company at Peterborough, and by
1882 he was chief electrical engineer for Liverpool’s first
electric street-lighting system. Two years later he moved to
Manchester and started his own engineering business, which
developed into Royce Ltd., manufacturers of electrically driven
cranes, dynamos, and motors.
Following a decline in trade after the Second Boer War and
the arrival of increasing competition in cranes and dynamos from Germany and the United States,
Royce began considering the motor car as a potential new product for the company. With his
fascination for all things mechanical he became increasingly focused on motor cars and bought a
small De Dion and a 1901 model two cylinder Decauville. This did not meet his high standards and so
he first improved it and then decided to manufacture a car of his own which he did in a corner of the
workshop.
In 1904 he built three experimental cars of his own design their outstanding qualities came to the
attention of the motor dealer C.S. Rolls, who soon agreed to take Royce’s entire output. The first
Rolls-Royce car, the Rolls-Royce 10 hp, was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904. In 1906
Rolls and Royce formalized their partnership by creating Rolls-Royce Limited, with Royce appointed
chief engineer and works director on a salary of £1,250 per annum plus 4% of the profits in excess of
£10,000 Royce thus provided the technical expertise to complement Rolls's financial backing and
business acumen. By 1907 the company was winning awards for the engineering reliability of its cars.
Ill health had forced his move away from Derby in 1912, 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 draughts men had to take the drawings to be personally
checked by him
In October 1928 he began design of the “R” engine and 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. 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.
Following the success of the “R” engine, it was clear that they had an engine that would be of use to
the Royal Air Force. As no Government assistance was forthcoming at first, in the national interest,
they went ahead with development of what was called the “P.V.12” engine. Later, the PV12 became
the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which went on to change the course of the Second World War.
Henry Royce had already been awarded the OBE after the First World War, and was created a
Baronet, of Seaton in the County of Rutland, on 26 June 1930 for his excellent contribution to British
Aviation. He died at his house ‘Elmstead’ in West Wittering on 22 April 1933 at the age of 70.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology is registered as a Charity in England & Wales (no. 211014) and Scotland (No. SCO38698).