Public demonstration
Johnson used reliability trials and a near-15,000-mile endurance run to make the 40/50 H.P.'s performance publicly verifiable.
People
Claude Johnson
Commercial managing director of Rolls-Royce
- Born
- Buckinghamshire, England, 1864
- Died
- 1926
- Nationality
- British
The record
Rolls-Royce managing director credited with naming the Silver Ghost and promoting the 40/50 H.P. through reliability trials.
Johnson joined C.S. Rolls & Co. in 1903 after serving as secretary of the Automobile Club. When Rolls-Royce Limited was established in 1906, he became its Commercial Managing Director, with responsibility for sales and publicity.
In 1907 he named the twelfth 40/50 H.P., chassis 60551, the Silver Ghost and drove part of its reliability programme. Rolls-Royce regards him as the likely source of the Phantom name, while noting that no specific documentary evidence proves it.
Names as sales devices
He gave the silver-painted 40/50 H.P. its Silver Ghost name and recognised that product names could support the company's sales work.
The house
Credited through Rolls-Royce.
In the register
2 files carry this name
The files above are the register's own record of this name. The people index holds everyone the register credits.