SPECIAL FEATURE ROYAL ROLLS ROYCES
AFFAIRS OF STATE
Rolls-Royce and Bentley are synonymous with Royal transport during the reign of Elizabeth II. With this year marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we look back at her State Cars, and how Rolls-Royce and Bentley came to attract such special patronage WORDS: RICHARD GUNN
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t’s 70 years since Britain gained a new Queen, with the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne in 1952. As the monarch who has presided over the UK’s modern era, cars as a means of regal transport have played a far greater role in her reign than with any of her predecessors. And the marques most associated with Elizabeth and others in her family are Rolls-Royce and, more recently, Bentley - something that had undoubtedly done the image of the two companies as paradigms of British prestige, luxury and craftsmanship absolutely no harm whatsoever. But how did the long-standing association begin? Originally, Royal patronage was reserved for some of their rivals instead.
PHOTOS: KELSEY ARCHIVE/ RICHARD GUNN
Although the automobile was born during the late-Victorian era, there is no record of Queen Victoria ever having been amused by one. It was with her son, Edward, Prince of Wales - later to become Edward VII upon the death of his mother in 1901 - that the Royal interest in motoring began. He was far more fascinated by all things mechanical and technical and although his reign spanned less than a decade, it marked a significant spread in the use of machinery throughout the nation. Edward first encountered a car during 1896 while visiting the Exhibition of Motors in Kensington, London, but it was only when that most famous of aristocratic motoring
Lord Montagu with Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1899. It was this encounter that prompted the Prince to buy his own Daimler, thus ensuring they later became State Cars
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enthusiasts, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, took him out for a drive in his Daimler 12hp during 1899 that Edward’s spark was ignited. He ordered a Daimler of his own the following year, which was followed by a succession of other models from the firm. They were soon adopted as the official State Cars. Rolls-Royce and Bentley didn’t even exist at this point - Henry Royce was still tinkering with the machines of others to try and improve them, while Walter Owen Bentley was still receiving his education in Bristol, ahead of a teenage apprenticeship with the Great Northern Railway in Yorkshire. However, one feature that would become a fixture on later Royal Rolls-Royces and Bentleys was established by Edward; the livery of Royal Claret, which first appeared on a 1902 Hooper-bodied Daimler. He later added black trim and a vermilion coachline - all aspects that remain on State Cars today. Nevertheless, when Rolls-Royces did start to appear, the noble connections of the Honourable Charles Rolls were able to get the marque noticed in the right circles. A very early photo from 1904 - the year of the first Rolls-Royce-badged car - showed the Duke of Connaught, the third son
Before Rolls-Royce, State Cars were the domain of Daimler such as this 1923 King George V car
J U LY/AU G U S T 2 0 2 2 R R & B D
