Editing Henry Royce (section)

==Collapse of Royce==
While by the time of his death on 12 July 1910 in a crash of his [[Wright Model A| Wright Flyer]] aircraft Rolls had little direct involvement with Rolls-Royce, though he was still on the Board of Directors, having attended his last  board meeting on 8 July. His death was still a shock to the company and in particular to Royce, bringing on a physical collapse, which was generally attributed to his workaholic nature and poor eating habits.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101>Reese, pp. 78, 79, 96, 99-101</ref>

[[Claude Johnson]] immediately arranged for Royce to be taken south to be examined by the best doctors in London. It is believed that they diagnosed him as having bowel cancer and undertook a major operation. Claremont like Royce also suffered from issues with his digestive system, which he attributed to the pair in their early days in business cooking their food in their workshops enamelling oven.<ref name=Reese_Pg31>Reese, p. 31</ref> After the operation they gave Royce three months to live.  Johnson thought they were being too pessimistic as Royce soon indicated signs of recovering. Royce was taken to the small village of [[Overstrand]] near Cromer in Norfolk to provide him with as much peace and quiet as possible. With it obvious that Royce’s wife was incapable of looking after him Johnson hired a nurse, Ethel T. "Auby" Audin. Once it became apparent to the doctors that Royce was making a remarkable recovery they advised that should be taken to a warmer climate.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/>  

Johnson agreed and decided that he should personally oversee Royce’s immediate care. Lord Herbert Scott agreed to fill in for Johnson as General Managing Director, while management of the Derby factory was entrusted to Thomas Haldenby and Arthur Wormald (1874-1936) who since 1904 had been the joint Works Manager.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/><ref name=Grace3>{{cite web |date= 12 June 2017 |title= Arthur Wormald |url=  https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Arthur_Wormald |website= Grace's Guide To British Industrial History  |accessdate= 8 May 2025}}</ref> Eric Platford was made responsible for quality control. With the company in the hands of people he could trust, Johnson travelled to Tours in France he met up with Royce and Audin who had travelled there via London and Dover.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/> A Silver Ghost with a closed body conveyed the combined party across France and down though Italy from where they travelled to Egypt where they spent the winter.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg44-129>Pugh, ''The Magic of a Name – The First Forty Years'', ''The Magic of a Name – The First Forty Years'', pp. 44, 107, 108, 129</ref> In the spring they returned to the Cote d’Azur and took up residence in Johnson’s house “Villa Jaune’ on top of a hill in the village of [[Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer| Le Canadel]]. Royce fell in love with the view and after expressing a desire to live here, Johnson purchased land below his own property for Royce.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/> Subsequently a house called “La Villa Mimosa” was constructed and the property landscaped to Royce’s designs.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.countrylife.co.uk/article/79997/San-Peyr-Le-Rayol-Canadel.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140517153416/http://www.countrylife.co.uk/article/79997/San-Peyr-Le-Rayol-Canadel.html |title= ''Country Life'' 2 July 2004 |archive-date=17 May 2014}}</ref> 

With Royce invigorated by the experience Johnson decided that the best way forward was to keep Royce away from the stressful factory environment at Derby, where he wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from getting involved in everything detail. In this way he could utilize Royce’s design talents for as long as possible. Johnson and Royce agreed in a devolved arrangement where Royce would spend the winter in Le Canadel and the summer in a quiet location in the south of England. In both locations he would have a small personal design team to translate his design ideas into a form that could then be converted into formal production drawings at the main drawing office in Derby. As a result Johnson commissioned the construction of another house below “La Villa Mimosa” for Royce’s design team. In the early summer of 1912 while Johnson resumed his duties in Derby, Royce returned to England and took up residence at Westwood near [[Crowborough]] in East Sussex.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/> Westwood was to be his summer residence in 1912 and 1913.  Here his wife rejoined him, along with her niece.  This did not make for a happy environment. Royce and Aubin departed for Le Canadel, where he suffered an reoccurrence of his intestinal issues.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/> He was urgently conveyed back to London in an ambulance converted from a 40/50. Once in London Royce had a colostomy operation and recuperated in a nursing home, where Aubin took 24-hour charge, sleeping on a camp bed in his room. Once he was fit enough Royce returned to Westwood, but the domestic environment proved to still be intolerable. Accompanied by Audin, Royce departed for Le Canadel, leaving his wife behind in Westwood.<ref name=Reese_Pg78-101/> As far as is known they never lived together again.

When he returned from Le Canadel in 1914 Royce rented a house called “Westward Ho!” in [[St Margaret's at Cliffe| St Margaret’s Bay]], near where Johnson had a home.<ref name=Pugh_Pt1_Pg44-129/>  Royce spent the winter of 1914-15 in a hotel in Bognor Regis, before buying a house called Seaton in St Margaret’s Bay.

He insisted on checking all new designs and engineers and draughtsmen had to send the drawings to be personally checked by him, a daunting prospect with his well-known perfectionism.  Under the new devolved arrangement Royce and his personal design team alternated between Le Canadel and the south of England as Royce led them in continuously improving the 40/50. Executives and engineers from Derby and London would visit and often bringing with them a chassis over which to discuss with the team any modifications being undertaken.