Charles Rolls - Definition and Overview

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (August 27, 1877 - July 12, 1910) was, together with Frederick Henry Royce, a co-founder of the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm.

Photo of a bronze bust of Charles Stewart Rolls, on display at Derby (England) Industrial Museum

He was born in Berkeley Square, London but retained a strong family connection with his ancestral home of Hendre, Monmouth, Wales. He was a son of the 1st Baron Llangattock. Rolls was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and from his youth was interested in engines. He teamed up with Frederick Henry Royce to found the manufacturing company in 1906, Royce providing the technical expertise to go with Rolls's financial backing and business acumen.

Rolls was also a pioneer aviator and was the second person in Britain to be licensed to fly by the Royal Aero Club. He was the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane. In the same year, 1910, he was killed in an air crash at Bournemouth when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident.