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Returning to England, he joined the Self-Propelled Traffic Association (SPTA), campaigning against motor vehicle restrictions created by the passage of the Locomotive Acts. Always active on campus, Rolls made his college’s bicycle racing team in his freshman year. The following year, along with buying his car, he became team captain of the Cambridge University Bicycle Club and won a Half Blue, a university honor similar to the U.S. award of a lettermen’s jacket. He also c-founded the Automobile Club of Great Britain, which merged with SPTA in 1897. After graduation with his bachelor’s degree in 1898, Rolls went to work on the steam yacht Santa Maria . He later accepted a position at the London and North Western Railway in Crewe, although he also completed coursework to earn his master’s while working.

In 1909 Charles Stewart Rolls bought the Wright Flyer. His interest in aviation proved his undoing when he died in a plane crash a year later.

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Rolls-Royce: Innovation and Aspiration