Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
Historical Series Reviews - Page 03
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Rolls-Royce on The Front Lines Softbound, 208 x 148 x 14 mm, 285 pages Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Recommended Retail Price: 100 photographs |
Reviewed by David A. Paddock, P.E. (ret)
This autobiography, quite appropriately subtitled “The life and times of a Service Engineer”, is No. 29 in the Historical Series published by Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and The Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation. Its 22 chapters cover his childhood, apprenticeship and subsequent employment with the Aero division of R-R.
While very interesting as a personal account of his life’s events, it’s written mostly for the British reader so that one has to pause often to accommodate the idioms as well as the frequent chronological excursions that sometimes make it difficult to follow.
Nevertheless, the narrative otherwise flows easily, and Henniker takes us to a fascinating variety of places and assignments as he performs technical support of the Kestrel and later R-R aircraft piston engines: Germany in 1936-37 to fettle Kestrels for Junkers; South Africa and Southern Rhodesia airlines with their Ju 52s and Ju 86s; back to England and then onto France to support the RAF during the “Phony War” in 1939/40; then back to England again and home service for the war.
There is very little technical discussion (an autobiography is chiefly about its author, after all), although about 100 photographs accompany the text, many depicting little-known and esoteric aircraft of the period that were powered by R-R engines. In addition, Henniker provides a short but dramatic list of some 31 fighter pilots who served with distinction and honor in the RAF and with whom he was personally acquainted.
Henniker is not particularly impressed with the French Air Force but has joyful memories of the people he associated with during his tour there. Needless to say, he believes the British Air Ministry was equally lacking in competence at that time, too.
One matter I hoped the book would reveal is the means by which an Englishman becomes an engineer, since the term is used vaguely in England and appears to be generally applied to any person who is engaged in making things and making them work—no formal, rigorous academic training is ever mentioned. Henniker’s story is that of apprenticeship for four years, including some classes at Derby Technical College (which were not encouraged by the firm). His apprenticeship, however, was rigorous, and involved learning a variety of machine shop and foundry skills, and he was ultimately promoted to Aero Division Service Manager, which is no small feat at Roll-Royce!
This book could very well take its place on the bookshelves of R-R aficionados everywhere to lend a personal account of the people who worked on the line for this great aero engine company.
More reviews coming soon
