The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls meets Sir Henry Royce. The 4th May 2021 is the 117th Anniversary of their first meeting at the Midland Hotel, Manchester in 1904.

May 4th again!

My sentimental celebration of the 117th anniversary meeting of Sir Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel Manchester in 1904 rolls around again. This historic event is customarily celebrated by the CCC and the Secretary of the RREC Polish Section at the Hotel Bristol in Warsaw, Poland. The dreaded virus pandemic dictates yet another rather melancholic, solitary celebration on 4th May 2021.

But today it falls in the middle of this ill-named  'Crown Virus' lock down. I find it hard to believe I was in exactly the same position as last year! 

SRH18723 outside the abandoned Hotel Bristol, Warsaw, 4th May 2021

I am feeling desperately deprived. In a fit of optimism, this morning I rang the Hotel Bristol, hoping to celebrate this important day with a glass of champers as controls are mercifully slightly relaxed in Poland today. The hotel will be closed until June.....

A few RREC members and CCC Members used to gather at the historic Bristol Hotel Warsaw for this convivial occasion. After Poland gained its independence in 1919, the famous pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski became the Prime Minister and held the first session of his government at this hotel. By some miracle the Bristol survived the war with minor damage, standing isolated in the rubble of the destroyed city. 

We usually meet in the Secession style Column Bar (possibly designed by the noted Viennese architect Otto Wagner) for champagne and tapas in what was known in more glamorous times as 'the cocktail hour', 5.30pm - 7.00pm. 

This small Rolls-Royce club gathering has become almost an institution at the Bristol over the years. It was a pleasant occasion and I was particularly gratified as I used to celebrate the historic meeting alone. In the past, for some like company whilst sipping my flute of Deutz champagne, I would take along a few Rolls-Royce Bulletins, Spirit & Speed and the Yearbook I had not had time to read. Anyone in those days entertaining the idea of the formation of a Polish Section of the RREC would have been considered a suitable case for treatment. Remarkably it has recently come to fruition.

I hope my bout of, yes, admittedly rather privileged nostalgia, for happier, more civilized days can be forgiven in view of the horrors besetting Europe and abroad - particularly those countries torn to shreds whose destinies rarely seem to reach our news bulletins - Yemen, Syria, Brazil, Ecuador, India and Africa....

SRH18723 outside the deserted Hotel Bristol Warsaw, 4th May 2021

Thank goodness I kept this record at least..... I shall be raising a glass on my terrace alone it seems which takes me back to the original way I celebrated this day....RR books, magazines and occasional fond glances at my parked Shadow, owned for 34 years.

For more on my interesting 1974 Silver Shadow SRH18723 
https://casualcars.blogspot.com/2015/10/rolls-royce-silver-shadow-50th.html

Part of the Speech made by Sir Charles Rolls at the Dinner following the 1905 Tourist Trophy Race:

Mr. Royce is one of those unassuming, hard-working men who devote their lives to the study and solution of difficult and mechanical problems, and to whom indirectly are due the general advancement of civilization and the high position which Great Britain holds at present in the engineering world. 

Making the best of it on a rainy, pademic-riddled, 4th May 2021, Karowa Street, Warsaw, 2021

My entry from last year 4th May 2020

https://casualcars.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-honourable-charles-stewart-rolls.html