26 Facts About Henry Royce

Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity.

Henry Royce produced his first aero engine shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, and aircraft engines became Rolls-Henry Royce's principal product.

Henry Royce's health broke down in 1911, and he was persuaded to leave his factory in the Midlands at Derby and, taking a team of designers, move to the south of England spending winters in the south of France.

Henry Royce died at his home in Sussex in the spring of 1933.

Henry Royce was born in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, near Peterborough on 27 March 1863 to Mary and James Henry Royce.

Henry Royce was later to describe his father as unsteady but clever, someone lacking the determination to apply himself single-mindedly to a task.

Henry Royce was nine years old at the time of his father's death and his formal education to date had consisted of one year at the Croydon British School.

Henry Royce was able to earn sufficient money to allow him to attend school over the next two years.

In November 1980 Henry Royce had to give up his apprenticeship after his great-aunt's money ran out.

Henry Royce changed its name to the Maxim-Weston Company after it expanded into manufacturing lamps designed by Hiram Maxim and Edward Weston.

In 1882 at the age of 19 Henry Royce was promoted to chief engineer of his employer's subsidiary the Lancashire Maxim-Weston Electric Company in Liverpool.

Until these could be obtained Henry Royce would be unpaid if he stayed with the new company.

Henry Royce was re-registered in 1899 as Royce Ltd with a public share flotation and a further factory opened in Trafford Park, Manchester.

Henry Royce thus provided the technical expertise to complement Rolls' financial backing and business acumen.

The Rolls-Henry Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Henry Royce Limited.

Henry Royce had always worked hard and was renowned for never eating proper meals which resulted in him being taken ill, first in 1902 and again in 1911.

Henry Royce 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.

Henry Royce had a villa 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.

Henry Royce told them that such a fast car should have a means by which the driver could adjust the stiffness of the suspension whilst they were driving, to suit the road conditions.

Rolls-Henry Royce launched the PV-12 in October 1933 and the engine completed its first test in 1934, the year after Henry Royce died.

Henry Royce married Minnie Punt in 1893 and they set up home together in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, and were joined by his mother, who lived nearby until her death in 1904, and Minnie's niece, Violet.

Henry Royce died at his house Elmstead in West Wittering on 22 April 1933.

Henry Royce's cremated remains were initially buried under his statue at the Rolls-Royce works in Derby, but in 1937 his urn was removed to the parish church of Alwalton, his birthplace.

Henry Royce, who lived by the motto "Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble", was appointed OBE in 1918, and was created a baronet, of Seaton in the County of Rutland, in 1930 for his services to British Aviation.

Henry Royce is commemorated in Royce Hall, student accommodation at Loughborough University, and until 2011 at one of Peterborough's Queensgate shopping centre car parks.