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The Sir Henry Royce Foundation

WHERE TO FIND US

The Genesis of the Foundation

Since the early 1960s there had been talk of the creation of a Trust or a Foundation to preserve memorabilia relating to Rolls-Royce and to its early personnel, particularly Sir Henry Royce. In 1977 The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation was formed in England and it received worldwide support from enthusiasts. Considerable financial support and gifts of important memorabilia were sent from Australia. Subsequently, the American Foundations were formed. The Australian connection with Rolls-Royce has long been recognised together with the need to preserve the past in Australia in this regard.

The Inspiration

Words written by Lord Hives, which are inscribed under the stained glass window at the Rolls-Royce manufacturing unit in Nightingale Road, Derby, England, read:

"This window commemorates the pilots of the Royal Air Force who, in the Battle of Britain, turned the work of our hands into the salvation of our Country."

The "work of our hands" was the production of the Merlin aero engine which powered Britain's two front-line fighters in that battle; the Hurricane and the Spitfire. It is universally acknowledged that, had Britain lost the Battle of Britain the history of the world may have been very different.
Why was it so fortuitous that Britain had in its fighters an engine that was capable of more than matching the performance of the enemy? It was because of the foresight and design genius of one man _ a man who had been dead for six years when World War II commenced _ who designed and manufactured the engines for Britain's successful Schneider Trophy defence in the early 1930s. He was the man who went on to develop the Merlin engine as a private venture when the Government of the time declined to finance it. The man was Sir Henry Royce and it is "the work of his hands" that is the basis of the Sir Henry Royce Foundation, Australia.