News

Dover is set to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first non-stop return flight across the Channel by Charles Rolls, and the town’s many local connections with the iconic Rolls-Royce company, with a special centenary celebration.

Dover District Council and Dover Town Council are organising a range of free events to mark the centenary and are welcoming this as a prestigious opportunity for the area.

There will be a series of events including a display of up to 100 historic and new Rolls-Royce cars on Dover seafront and the chance to see, Charles Rolls’ only surviving car, an original 8hp Panhard Levassor, which he brought to one of the UK’s earliest motor shows at Crabble Athletic Ground in 1899.

2010 is the centenary of the first non-stop return flight across the English Channel, from Dover to Calais and back, by Charles Rolls.

The internationally renowned Rolls-Royce company had many other local connections with the Dover area. Henry Royce and his engineers were based in St Margaret’s between 1913 and 1917, where they developed the first Rolls-Royce aero engines.

Claude Johnson, the first Managing Director of Rolls-Royce, had a weekend house for many years in Kingsdown. From 1908 until just after World War II, Palmer’s of Dover (later Jenkins and Pain) was one of a few select coach building companies providing bodywork for Rolls-Royce cars.

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010