News

The Roy Fedden Trophy

Roy FeddenThis impressive sterling silver cup was presented to the club in 1935 by Sir Roy Fedden. It stands approximately 350mm high on its original plinth, and is about 250mm wide across the handles. The hallmark dates the cup at 1904, and it was supplied by Weir & Sons, Grafton St., Dublin. They offered the following information in 2010: “The Design of this cup is taken from a very early drinking vessel called a mether. Early ones were made of oak and in some cases had very elaborate applied celtic silver work and handles. Our company made many of this design, ranging from the size of an egg cup right up to this one, and larger.”

Roy Fedden was born in 1885, and was educated in Bristol at Clifton College and Merchant Venturers College. His interest in engineering started in 1903, when his father bought a motor car. He went on to set up and run the engine division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, designing engines with names like Mercury, Jupiter, Hercules, Pegasus and Perseus, amongst others. In the 1930s his engines powered Britain’s national airline, Imperial Airways, and more than half the Royal Air Force.

When he donated the trophy to us he was a vice president of the club; that was before he was knighted in 1942.

The Roy Fedden Trial was first run in 1936 as a Reliability Trial; it is now a Sporting Trial and takes place on Remembrance Sunday every November.