Rolls-Royce: Ivan took Saturday off work for a honeymoon

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Last month, Bygones carried an article about Ivan Ivernden (known to his colleagues as Ev), who back in the 1920s was one of Sir Henry Royce’s personal staff of designers. Here, Mike Evans, founder of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, adds his memories of the remarkable Ev.

Ivan Evernden with Henry Royce. Ivan was the engineer who designed the Silver Wraith, the Silver Dawn and his own favourite, the Continental Bentley

I FIRST came to know who Ivan Evernden was back in 1961. My first proper job at Rolls-Royce was in the public relations depart- ment at Nightingale Road (now called Corporate Communications).

Certain correspondence was passed to me and in the Rolls-Royce way, an abbreviation of my name was used – Ev for Evans.

It did not take long for some documents to find their way to the real “Ev” at Crewe, who wanted to know who the “pretender” was. That was my introduction to Ivan Evernden. I came to learn a lot more.

Ev joined Rolls-Royce in 1916. He had been called up while studying for a degree in engineering at Kings College, London, but had been rejected for military service on medical grounds.

Instead, he was directed to Rolls-Royce as a draughtsman. His first job was on the Madsen Automatic Rifle (MAR) which the company had obtained a licence to manufacture from the Danish concern, the DRRS.

Initially, the British Government was not interested, saying its supply of machine guns was “amply sufficient”. Royce had already decided that the best way it could support its nation was by designing competent aero engines, so the MAR was dropped – soon after which the Government began to beg for guns!

Ev was reallocated to work for Bernard Incledon Day, _ Da – in the Royal Airship Design Office at Rolls-Royce. The office worked on using the power of an airship’s engines to steer them through swivelling propeller vectored thrust, long before the Harrier jump jet. Years later, Ev was to succeed Da as chief designer of the car division.

After Royce had his major illnesses in 1911 and 1912, he moved away from Quarndon. He always had with him a number of able designers and draughtsmen, whether at St Margaret’s Bay in Kent, at Le Canandel or West Wittering, in Sussex.

Among the first were A G Elliott, who ultimately retired as vice-chairman to Lord Hives, R W Harvey-Bailey, whose achievements were legion, and Maurice Olley, who became chief engineer of Rolls-Royce of America Inc when cars were built at Springfield after the First World War.

Ev was posted to West Wittering in the early months of 1921, Donald Eyre also being sent at much the same time.

One of the first stories I was told about Ev was when he was due to marry. Royce asked his bride-to-be what they intended doing for a honeymoon. She replied that she understood the rule was that Saturday mornings were allowed off, so they planned on a weekend away.

This stemmed from when one of the most senior designers married Royce’s secretary. Royce had been given no hint that there was a romance right under his nose and he was somewhat upset to find out. After that he engaged a male secretary, “Monty” Marrnont, and the point was further pressed by the individual being allowed just the Saturday morning off for his honeymoon.

This time, Royce, who was very fond of Ev, apparently said: “Oh no, you must have a proper honeymoon.”

As well as having the Saturday morning off, he insisted that the young couple use his personal Rolls-Royce.

Before Rolls-Royce car production moved to Crewe in 1946, the company always built chassis (R-R, and, from 1931, Bentley as well).

Coachbuilders then built a body on to the chassis. There was an interface between these two parts where, if things had not been done properly, the end result could be unsatisfactory.

One man can be credited for the competence of this interface – Ev. In addition, his own design and styling work guided many of the best coachbuilders. Some of the most elegant cars ever produced on Rolls-Royce chassis were inspired by him – particularly the Phantom II Continentals from 1929 to 1936.

During the war, Ev remained with the Chassis Division which Hives had created as a separate entity to aero engines in 1937.

The team moved, with all the technical staff, to Belper where they decided to concentrate on making tanks faster, more reliable and better fighting vehicles. The tank they started with, the Meteor, had only about half the power of the unsupercharged Merlin. It only had a small space to fit into. It was his work on making the cooling and exhaust systems work so competently that gained Ev his MBE.

After the war, car production recommenced at Crewe and, a few years later, most of the Clan Foundry engineering team moved there too. The odd individual, including Donald Bastow, commuted!

Ev moved and had it not been for his efforts, there would almost certainly never have been a Bentley Continental. In its day, it was the fastest saloon in the world and examples command premium prices to this day.

The “Flying Spur” Continental also owed its styling directly to designs created by Ev in the 1930s.

The other great thing that he did was to preserve so much of the historical record on the cars. Wistaston Hall near Crewe proved a useful hiding place. Today, the records retained by the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation are still in existence because Ev did what he believed to be right.

Perhaps Ev’s last contribution was to deliver the very first Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture of the Derby branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Its subject? Sir Henry Royce. It remains one of the best accounts of “the old man” ever written.

In 1979, I was privileged to arrange for a commemorative plaque to Ev to be placed on the wall of Royce’s design studio at West Wittering.

I managed to track down all surviving members of Royce’s team and they all attended the unveiling – Donald Bastow, Harry Biraben, Tony Cooke, Ivan Evemden and Bill Hardy.

By then, Ev was living in nearby East Wittering and he had grown frail. I acted as his escort on the day and told him about my having perpetuated his old “reference”.

He seemed pleased that he was remembered still and not only by me. He particularly enjoyed meeting one of his old subordinates, Alan G Newton, who had risen to become director of engineering for Rolls-Royce Limited.

It was not long after that final get-together that both Ivan Evernden and Bill Hardy, who lived nearby, passed on. They were among the last to have worked with the great man himself, and to have witnessed his relentless pursuit of excellence which was to remain the hallmark of Rolls-Royce to this day.

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