Frederick Henry Royce: The Other Half of the Brain Behind Rolls-Royce

Frederick Henry Royce was an English car designer and engineer, best known for co-founding the Rolls-Royce Company with Charles Stewart Rolls. The youngest in a brood of five, Royce was born in Alwalton but moved to London when their family business ran aground. When his father died, he helped out the family by delivering telegrams and selling newspapers.

He later on became an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway company before joining the Electric Light and Power Company to work on theatre and street lighting in Liverpool. In 1884, he put up a business with Ernest Claremont and called it F.H. Royce and Company.

It was in 1894 when Royce started becoming interested in motor cards, but by 1904 the man had already built three of his own cars. It was probably his decision to work on a 1901 two-cylinder car that sparked his passion. It was in selling one of the cars he made that he had the pleasure of meeting Rolls, marking the beginning of their future venture together.

Royce was a hard-working man but this very diligence gave him poor health because he never ate properly. Since he was not well, he was forced to leave Derby where the Rolls-Royce Company had a factory. Nevertheless, this didn't keep him from handling the design of the Derby factory. Royce also kept busy by demanding that all new drawings, plans, and designs be personally inspected by him.

In 1893, he was married to Minnie Punt. They were divorced in 1912 and he never remarried. He died in 1933. He was 70 years old. After the First World War ended, Royce was given the OBE and was declared in 1930 a Baronet for his contributions to the British aviation industry. Royce adhered to the motto 'Whatever is right done, however humble, is noble."