Rolls-Royce Orange County HQ

THE HONOURABLE CHARLES STEWART ROLLS
Charles Stewart Rolls
The exciting possibility of
the automobile caught the
attention of a young man
named Charles Rolls, who studied
mechanical engineering at Cambridge.
Rolls was born in 1877 in
London’s affluent Berkeley Square,
the third son to 1st Baron Lord
and Lady Llangattock. Lord Llangattock,
born John Rolls, served as
a politician, landowner, and his rise
in peerage led to his top rank in
society. For example, in late October
to early November of 1900,
the Duke and Duchess of York (later
King George and Queen Mary)
stayed with the Rolls family at their
home at the Herde estate.
Rolls attended Eton College, a
prep school in Berkshire, and the
Trinity College at the University of
Cambridge. Rolls became the first
undergraduate at Cambridge (and
perhaps in the world) to own a
motor car, for which he saved and
purchased second-hand. Known
Photo credit: John Howard Preston, The National Archives UK, public domain
Honorable Charles S. Rolls’ in his autocar with HRH The Duke of York, Lord Llangattock,
[Rolls’ father], Sir Charles Cust. Rolls went on to co-found Rolls-Royce in 1904. The photograph
shows ‘The Hendre’, the family’s gothic mansion in Monmouthshire.
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