Charles Rolls Memorial:
Charles Stewart Rolls, on 2 June 1910, became the first man to cross the Channel both ways in a single flight. Leaving Swingate aerodrome near Dover at 6.30pm, Rolls was back in Dover at 8pm when he was carried shoulder high through the town. Only a month later, at a flying display at Bournemeouth, he became the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident.
This monument, in bronze, is dedicated to the memory of the Honourable Charles Rolls (he of Rolls-Royce fame) who became the first person to fly a heavier than air machine across the Channel and back again. His daring “there and back flight” was one of his last. He was killed in a flying accident a few months later.
Unveiling ceremony 1912
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This statue, unveiled in April 1912 by the Duke of Argyle, was sculpted by Kathleen, the wife of the ill-fated polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott. She completed the work not knowing her husband had perished.
Unveiling ceremony 1912
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