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formed a friendship over the new-fangled automobiles that had captured their interest. It took two years for the two Englishmen to decide to do business together. Their mutual interest in cars cut through many differences in their upbringings, but it took time to build the friendship that led to one of the world’s longest-lasting luxury goods manufacturers. Just how different were the young lives

of these two enigmatic engineers, and why did it mean so much that they

joined forces to bring England one of its first automobiles? Sir Frederick Henry Royce

Sir Frederick Henry Royce (1863–1933).

The detail-oriented Frederick Henry Royce entered this world on March 27, 1863, in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire. Born to James Royce, a flour mill operator, and Mary King Royce, a homemaker, the youngest of the couple’s five children loved to play and explore, spending time with his father in the flour mill once he reached toddler age. His curiosity sometimes got the better of him, and at age two he clamored into the sluiceway of the flour mill and almost drowned. His father saved him, but could not save the mill, leased from Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which went under. His father and

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