| Charles Stewart Rolls Born: 27-Aug-1877
Birthplace: Berkeley Square, London, England
Died: 12-Jul-1910
Location of death: Bournemouth, Hampshire, England
Cause of death: Accident - Airplane
Remains: Buried, Llangattock Churchyard, Monmouthshire, England
Gender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Business, Aviator Nationality: England
Executive summary: Co-Founder of Rolls-Royce Charles Stewart Rolls was raised in peerage, the son of a baron, and owned the third car in Wales -- a 3 ¾ horsepower Peugeot -- at a time when automobiles were an extravagant luxury. At the age of 24 he opened an auto sales office, and as cars gained popularity he used his family's connections to have the national speed limit raised to 12 mph. In 1906, he met Henry Royce, who had been hand-building cars for four years. Impressed with the workmanship of Royce's vehicles, Rolls offered to handle the sales side of a partnership between the two men, and they incorporated their business as Rolls-Royce Ltd.
His name lives on as half the nameplate of the world's most prestigious auto, but Rolls' true passion was aviation, making more than 150 ascensions as a balloonist and later setting records as an airplane flyer. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club, and in 1910 he became the first pilot to fly a non-stop round trip across the English Channel, leaving and landing in Dover and circling over Calais -- a 42 mile journey which Rolls accomplished in a mere hour and a half. Later that year he became the first Englishman to be killed in an air accident, when his Kitty Hawk flyer came apart in mid-air and crashed near Bournemouth.
Father: John Allan Rolls (1st Baron Llangattock, b. 19-Feb-1837, d. 24-Sep-1912)
Mother: Georgiana Marcia Maclean Rolls (b. 28-Feb-1837, d. 1-Apr-1923)
Brother: John McLean Rolls (2nd Baron Llangattock and Mayor of Monmouth, b. 25-Apr-1870, d. 31-Oct-1916 war)
Brother: Henry Allan Rolls (military officer, b. 7-Sep-1871, d. 26-Jun-1916 war)
Sister: Eleanor Georgiana Shelley-Rolls (b. 9-Oct-1872, d. 15-Sep-1961)
High School: Eton College (1895)
University: BA Engineering, Cambridge University (1899)
University: MA Engineering, Cambridge University (1901)
Rolls-Royce Co-Founder & Sales Director (1906-10)
Royal Geographical Society
Royal Meteorological Society
Welsh Ancestry (maternal)
English Ancestry
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