of Derby and later of Crewe, manufactured cars and aero-engines. For successor companies see Rolls-Royce Motors and Rolls-Royce plc.
See also -
1906 March 15th. The company was registered to take over the manufacture of the Rolls-Royce motor car from Royce Ltd [1] including the Cooke Street works.
1906 December. New shares issued of £200,000 to increase the capital with a view of enlarging the works, and to acquire the business of C. S. Rolls and Co. [2] [3] Directors:
- C. S. Rolls,
- F. H. Royce,
- Claude Goodman Johnson,
- Ernest A. Claremont and
- Arthur Harry Briggs.
- William Worby Beaumont is Consulting Engineer.
- Herbert Scott becomes a director later
1908 July 9th. The company moved from Manchester to a new factory at Nightingale Road, Derby designed by Royce. The factory was built by Andrew Handyside and Co
1910 Claremont is Chairman, Briggs and Scott are re-elected as directors. [4]
1910 April. C. S. Rolls resigned his position of Technical Managing Director of Rolls-Royce in order to concentrate on his aviation interests[5]; he became an adviser to Rolls-Royce
1910 After the death of Rolls in a flying accident, his shares were acquired by the future Lord Beaverbrook, who held them for a few years but did not gain control of.the company[6]
1911 Formed Automobiles Rolls-Royce (France) Limited. [7]
WWI The company was concerned that the outbreak of war would curtail demand for their luxury automobiles but they did not plan to make aero-engines. However, after a request from the Royal Aircraft Factory they did tender to build some Renault aero-engines. Unimpressed by the design of these engines, inspired Royce to design his own aero-engine, which became the Eagle, a V12 engine that went onto be used in a number of military aircraft.
In order to kepp up with demand once the Eagle was established, the War Office tried to persuade the company to allow other UK manufacturers to contribute production resources but the company resisted this. Instead there was a big expansion of the Derby factory, as well as allowing Brazil, Straker and Co to build Eagles and the smaller Falcon engine; Brazils also built the 6-cylinder variant, the Hawk.
1915 The Eagle was used first in the Handley Page O/100 bomber, and then, in 1916, in the Curtiss H.12 flying boat, the F.E.2d fighter and the Airco DH4 light bomber.
c1918 Arthur Wormald is MD of the Derby works. A. J. Rowledge is Chief Assistant Engineer.
1919 Established a factory in America
1919 The design team was headed by Timothy B. Barrington with A. G. Elliott and Bernard Day assisting. R. C. Hall looked after metellurgy.
1921 The company opened a second factory in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1926 Mr Basil Johnson was appointed managing director in place of the late Claude Johnson.[8]
1931 Aqcuired Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd through the British Equitable Central Trust.
1933 Manufacturers of aero engines. Works: Nightingale Lane, Derby. Head Office: 14-15 Conduit Street, London W.1.
1934 See Rolls-Royce: 1934 Review
WWII Opened a new factory at Hillington near Glasgow to make components for aero-engines and eventually complete engines, supplementing production at Derby and Crewe.
As well as producing key aero-engines such as the Merlin, Rolls-Royce took over production of the Whittle jet engine from Rover.
1956 Acquired Sentinel for its factory and production capacity[9]
1961 Parent of 13 subsidiaries. Group employs 44,000 persons. Manufacturers of motor car, aero engines, petrol and oil engines, rocket motors and nuclear propulsion. Specialists in designing, developing and procuring of nuclear compartments for naval vessels. [10]
1968 Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement. [11]
1971 Financial problems caused largely by development of the new RB 211 turbofan engine led — after several cash subsidies — to the company being nationalised by the Heath government in 1971. (Delay in production of the RB211 engine has been blamed for the failure of the technically advanced Lockheed TriStar, which was beaten to launch by its chief competitor, the Douglas DC-10.)
1971 The receiver created a new company, Rolls-Royce Motors, to contain the profitable parts of the company including the car manufacturing division, the marine and industrial diesel engines, military vehicle operations and rights to the Wankel engine. The new company included the coach building businesses of H. J. Mulliner, Park Ward and Bentley Motors (1931)[12]. The gas turbine businesses were put into a new company Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd[13]
1972 A new company, Bristol Composite Materials, was established to acquire Rolls Royce (Composite Materials) and the carbon-fibre producer Hyfil from the receiver[14]
1973 Having failed to attract sufficiently high offers in the sale by tender, the automobile business was spun off as a public company, Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd[15]. The main business of aircraft and marine engines remained in public ownership until 1987, when it was privatised as Rolls-Royce plc, one of many privatisations of the Thatcher government.
See the successor companies for later history of Rolls-Royce
Locations
- Derby
- Crewe
- Hillington
- East Kilbride
- Manchester
- London, Conduit Street
- Hucknall, Nottingham
- West Wittering
- Clan Foundry, Belper
- Barnoldswick
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ The Times, Monday, Dec 17, 1906
- ↑ The Early History of Motoring by Claude Johnson
- ↑ The Times, Saturday, Jan 15, 1910
- ↑ The Times, Jul 13, 1910
- ↑ Wikipedia
- ↑ The Times, Wednesday, May 31, 1911
- ↑ The Engineer 1926/04/30
- ↑ The Times, Jun 17, 1957
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Engineer of 26th April 1968 p650
- ↑ The Times, Mar 23, 1971
- ↑ The Times, May 22, 1971
- ↑ The Times, Sep 16, 1972
- ↑ The Times, May 04, 1973
- [1] Wikipedia
- 1961 Guide to Key British Enterprises
- British Motor Cars 1950/51
- The Life of Sir Henry Royce by Max Pemberton. Published 1930s
- The Rolls-Royce Motor Car and Bentley since 1931 by Bird, Hallows and James. Published 1964.
- [2]