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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1425.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 October 1956 SIR HENRY ROYCE 577 Wittering, in Sussex, a very small village on the Channel, on rhewest point of Chichester Harbour, opposite to East Beach, HayMng Island. The house "Elmstead," which was a rather long, two-storey building, one room thick, with a wing each end, had a lovely old English lawn in front and a large garden, as well asseveral acres of meadowland. Two small reception rooms were set aside for the design staff, headed by Mr. Elliott, and includingChas. Jenner and S. F. Pottinger. Upstairs was the secretary's office, adjacent to the "Old Man's" bedroom. In the early dayshe was affectionately known as "Pa Royce." In later years as a term of endearment, he was always spoken of by his staff as the"Old Man." In 1918 Mr. Evernden was privileged to get a glimpse of thisremote brain centre, when he was asked to join the staff. "Arriving at Chichester around midday," he recalled, "I made my way bycarrier's van to the village and put up at the Dog and Duck. After tea, I was invited to go up to "Elmstead" for the evening.In the little office illuminated by large circular-wicked lamps, cream papered walls, and coconut matting floors, a conferencewas in progress on the design of the nose bearing of the Eagle reduction gear. The problem was to provide a means of rapidlysetting this bearing in line with the crankshaft after an engine over- haul consisting of the fitting of new main bearings. The sessionended only at 10 p.m. when Miss Aubin came in to suggest that it was getting very late. Thus was evolved the double eccentricmounting for the nose bearing with vernier setting. Royce had peculiar but logical ideas. For example, one worked inthe morning, had several hours leisure in the afternoon, and after having tea with him at about 4.30 p.m., one worked on until8 p.m. or even 10 p.m. His idea was that more benefit could be derived, especially during the shorter days, from leisure in hoursof daylight when living in such a remote locality. "Sorry I was," continued Mr. Evernden, "not to have made good—but with Royce one never knew. Although I had been groomed for the occasion under the experienced tutorship of Hs., I musthave created a bad impression, or worn the wrong clothes." The lecturer went on to recall that the period after the Armis-tice held great problems for the management, but they were in the aero-engine business to stay.Mr. Evernden then described the development of the Condor mentioning, incidentally, the supercharged Series V, not referredto in Flight of May 7, 1954. He referred to late marks of Eagle; a "new Eagle" of January 1925, having 16 cylinders in X forma-tion; the Kestrel; and the Buzzard. The speed with which these new projects were conceived wasmade possible only by a design team built up in Derby by Royce under the guidance of Mr. A. J. Rowledge, who had joined thecompany at about the end of the war and, by the develonment team under Mr. Hives. Royce believed in team work. Almostweekly visits were made by Hives and Rowledee to West Wittering, to discuss designs, and the results of tests. When the weather wasfine, these conferences took place in the shade of the mulberry tree at the end of the lawn at "Elmstead." During preparations for the Schneider race of 1929, Mr. Evern-den went on, visitors were frequent at "Elmstead," and life for Royce became changed for a while. Of retiring disposition as hewas, Royce was persuaded to go round to Calshot on several occasions to see the work of preparation for the race and to meetthe pilots. Strangely enough one of the turning points of the course for the race was in the village and Royce watched therace from a haystack on his farm. Elated as he was with the victory, his chief emotion was one ofrelief that no pilot had lost his life in the contest. The stress and strain had taken their toll and he was confined to bed for severaldays. Tea under the mulberry tree at "Elmstead," West Wittering, where much of the development work on the Schneider Trophy engines was done: F. H. Royce, C. L. Jenner, and E. W. Hives, now Lord Hives. (Above) Royce with Schneider Trophy pilots at Calshot in 1929. In the Birthday Honours of 1930 Royce was created a baronet.Towards the end of 1932 the company was embarking on the development of an engine—the Merlin—which was to carry "themagic of a name" into the great battles of the Second World War. Sir Henry's health would not permit him to journey to his villa onthe Riviera for the winter of that year, and much of the early part of 1933 he spent in bed. Even so, he was not inactive mentallyand would give "audiences" in his room, study current designs and send back handwritten instructions. For some years he hadtaken an interest in farming and had acquired some 70 acres. He decided to build a cottage and made a detailed specification whichhe showed Mr. Evernden on April 13, 1933; but he died on April 22.Among Mr. Evernden's concluding remarks were these: "Essentially a mechanic, he was suspicious of academic learning,and regarded it as just another tool in the tool box, to be used only as a last resort ... Of the many great achievements of hislife, perhaps the greatest of all was the building of a unique engineering organization which would enable his work to go on;that body of engineers, dedicated to uphold and to practise his doctrines." The "R" engine (left), having proved so successful as a racing unit, was developed into the P.V.12, a private venture which was later—after the death of Sir Henry Royce—adopted by the Government and produced in vast quantities as the world-famous Merlin (right).
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