THE designer of the finest cars in the world had only one regret: that he didn’t work harder. Sir Henry Royce’s obsessive pursuit of perfection and his almost ascetic-like dedication to efficiency is the stuff of legend in both automotive and aviation circles. However, the co-founder of Rolls-Royce, whose engines powered the Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft that helped win the Battle of Britain, was also a respected countryman, farmer and agriculturist.
It was most likely the poverty of his childhood that made Sir Henry (March 27, 1863-April 22, 1933) strive for success in everything he did. The financial failure of his father, a miller in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire), dictated an impecunious existence in which his
