W. A. Robotham

William Arthur Robotham (26 November 1899 – 1980) was a Rolls-Royce executive involved in the development of Rolls-Royce cars, during World War II of tanks and tank engines, and post-war of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars complete with bodies and then of industrial petrol and diesel engines.

William Arthur "Rm" Robotham was born at Shardlow, Derby, William Blews Robotham (1863-1943), his father, was a solicitor and twice Mayor of Derby. Robotham joined Rolls-Royce as a premium apprentice in 1919. In four years the apprentices went to every department of the factory; although they did not have to undertake any study at a technical college, Robotham went to night school two or three evenings a week studying mathematics and engineering drawing. They were paid 5s per week. He had an "old and slow" Rover motorcycle, and in weekends played golf, tennis or went on Sunday motorcycle outings with other apprentices.

In 1923 after finishing his apprenticeship he became a junior technician in the Experimental Department at Derby under Ernest Hives: Hives was also in charge of production at the Derby Works. Designing was done at West Wittering, Sussex or Le Canadel in France, and at London were Sales (Conduit Street), the London Service and Repair Department (Cricklewood) and all the directors except Royce.

Experience from 1933 on showed that sales averaged about 1,500 cars per year as Rolls-Royce or Bentley; with the price about twice that of the best quantity-produced car, all with 6-cylinder engines (cars with 8 or 4-cylinder engines were not required unless volume production of more than 10,000 cars a year was proposed). Their cars were supplied as rolling chassis to custom coachbuilders in London, the "provinces", or Paris (e.g. Park Ward, Thrupp & Maberly, Arthur Mulliner, H. J. Mulliner & Co., Hooper or De Villars). Up to 25 bodies were built to the same specification.

Some cars were built for foreign potentates under instruction for the Government. After an official visit from Amanullah Khan, the King of Afghanistan, he was shown at the Derby works an open tourer with a body by Barker's which was sold to him. Robotham was disgusted when Barker's got the order, until hearing that they had "great problems" in collecting payment. Another foreign buyer "which could not be refused" was for two limousines and a saloon; to be immune from a Mauser bullet fired at ten paces. The three Rolls-Royce Phantom IVs were for Generallisimo Franco of Spain. He recommended a body from Mulliner's of Chiswick who "had many satisfied customers among the more unpopular rulers of the world". A mission to Mulliner's of Army officers required glass one and three quarters of an inch thick, and armour plate. The large floor area required armour plate almost half an inch thick, and this would make the completed weight of the cars over three and a half tons which would overstress the wheels and gearbox on Spain's main roads. Some years later when holidaying there he inspected the cars; the brigadier in charge of the garage praised them and said they were used frequently. The speedometers only showed less than 2,000 km but "they were taken by train and only driven for the actual inspections and processions".

In 1940 he was asked to concentrate on armoured fighting vehicles, and found the research facilities of the British motor-car industry "disappointingly meagre" apart from Vauxhall Motors (part of GM). In December 1940 Henry Spurrier of Leyland Motors and Robotham agreed British tanks were underpowered, and decided to develop at Belper a new tank engine based on the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine; to be called Meteor. The team at Clan Foundry, Belper included three of Spurrier's best designers, and also developed the Rolls-Royce B range engines. He wrote of the chaos in British armoured fighting vehicles as for twenty years between the wars as "the design and development of British tanks had been shamefully neglected ... with ill-informed criticism of the politicians, the kaleidoscopic changes in policy by the General Staff, and the relentless pressure for output regardless of quality".

In November 1941 he was appointed Chief Engineer of Tank Design in the Ministry of Supply by Beaverbrook despite his lack of experience in tank design. He continued to direct the Meteor design team at Belper. He found that the Tank Board had no experienced mechanical engineers and that the War Office General Staff had no clear conception of their requirements. Beaverbrook wanted output at any cost, and he once told the Beaver that they "had enough unreliable tanks to last the rest of the war!" He "stuck his toes in" and demanded sound products e.g. manganese steel castings for tank tracks as a broken track could be a death warrant for the crew. In the Ministry of Supply the answer to problems was to "shoot the messenger" and outsiders he was dealing with had the attitude that he would be gone tomorrow, so he resigned, leaving in August 1943 and returning to Belper. He thought (which turned out to be true) that any improvements would not reach the firing line before the end of the war.

By 1943 the Belper team had progressed a post-war range of 4, 6 and 8-cylinder car engines with parts in common. They had run many hundreds of thousands of miles in experimental cars, including the very fast but smooth Scalded Cat a Bentley with a 6-litre 8-cylinder engine and capable of over 100 mph, which Robotham liked for his commuting. The Duke of Edinburgh borrowed it for a week, and it was dismantled to avoid further requests. However following a 1948 request for a Rolls-Royce from the Crown (who usually chose Daimler cars) the Rolls-Royce Phantom IV was developed for Prince Philip and approved by him, to be privately owned. The Phantom IV was subsequently supplied to other royalty and heads of state.