The lunch that formed a landmark partnership

Way back in 1904 on a May afternoon at the luxurious Midland Railway Hotel in Greater Manchester two gentlemen met for lunch. One of the gentlemen was the aviation pioneer, motoring enthusiast,car salesman and aristocrat The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls;  the other an ex Great Northern Railway engineering apprentice and owner of a successful electrical equipment that bore his name was Mr Henry Royce.

Feeling under pressure from larger German firms Royce had decided to branch out into car making. 1904 saw his first vehicle built with a further two more the same year. The third one that was built was bought by one of Mr Royce’s directors who turned out to be a friend of The Hon.Charles Stewart Rolls who had recently opened in Fulham a car dealership (one of the first in Britain) to import Peugeots .

So Mr Royce had a car but no dealer and Mr Rolls was a dealer who needed a car.

Although impressed with the quality of engineering on Mr Royce’s  small two cylinder car Mr Rolls realised that it was too expensive to sell in its class so by the end of the lunch the two gentlemen had agreed that Royce would build a larger range of motor cars and Rolls would buy and sell all the vehicles that were built in 1904 and they would be badged Rolls-Royces.

The partnership proved to be a success so they formed a company in March 1906 called Rolls-Royce Ltd and so Rolls Royce was born.

The first ‘real’ Rolls-Royce car was the 6 cylinder 40/50 HP known as the SILVER GHOST. And between the years 1907 -1925, 7870 were produced.

In 1908 the factory premises were moved from Manchester to Derby and remains there to this day although now producing aero engine parts.