Page 101 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

city to replace Addis Ababa as the state capital. From September 1953 they went their separate
ways, with Gard continuing in his own name in Dudley and Harris forming what was to become
the very successful architectural practice of J Seymour Harris Partnership based in Birmingham.
Gard lived in St James’s Road, Dudley and then in Sedgley for 3 or 4 years before retiring and
moving away from the district about 1964. He spent most of his retirement in Devon.

316 Frederick Vincent RICHARDSON (1897-1971) (inducted c.9.4.1951; resigned 25.2.1952 ‘for
personal reasons’. In 1957 it was hoped he would re-join but this did not happen.)
Communication Service - Postal Service. He was Head Postmaster of Dudley from 1949 to 1959
(being succeeded by Bernard Smith, Club member #370). Born in Liverpool he moved to
Sheffield as a youngster and on leaving school at 14 became a ‘Telegraph Messenger’ boy.
Thereafter he appears to have spent his entire working life with the Post Office except for 4
years of military service during the First World War. At 17 he was taken on to the staff as a
Temporary Assistant Postman, soon rising to Sorting Clerk. In 1915 he signed up as a Rifleman
with the London Regiment and fought in France, being twice wounded in action: shot in the
shoulder and both arms in 1916 and in the right side in 1918. On discharge as a Lance Corporal
in 1919 he returned to the Post Office in Sheffield and remained in the service there until being
appointed to Dudley. In later years his home was in Stourbridge.

317 Kenneth (‘Ken’) Willetts KIDSON (1916-1984.) (Inducted 9.4.1951; died 10.3.1984 whilst still a
member.) Structural Engineering (Consulting). Chartered structural engineer practising as A E
& K W Kidson. His father Albert was also a structural engineer (and member of the Rotary club,
#224). Ken spent almost all of his life in the Dudley area except for some early experience in
Bolton. He joined his father Albert in business in 1947, at first as A E Kidson & Son with offices
in Dudley High Street. He became sole proprietor after his father died two years later. He moved
offices to St James’s Road in 1951 and then to Dixon’s Green about 1969. His home was at
Wordsley.

318 Albert (‘Bert’) Lees Hingley CUTLER (1892-1978) (Inducted 30.4.1951; died 11.1.1978 whilst still
a member.) Musical Instruction (instrumental). Freelance music teacher based at his home in
Wellington Road and later Gervase Drive, and associated also with Stanton’s musical instrument
shop in Castle Street, Dudley. He was the organist at St Thomas’s (‘Top Church’) for over 50
years, from1919 to 1971, and for many years also choirmaster. It was probably him, rather than
his father also called Albert, who was organist at Wolverhampton Street Presbyterian Church
during 1908 and 1909 when he would have been only 16 and 17. Bert grew up in Netherton and
worked first in his father’s business as paint manufacturer, painter and decorator, then for
himself at home as a ‘paint grinder’ until at least his late-20s before turning to a musical career.
He was a long-serving member of Dudley Conservative Club, and was initiated into the Harmonic
Lodge of freemasons when he was 25.

319 William Arthur WOODALL (1903-1975) (Inducted 7.5.1951; resigned c.July 1953 on transfer to
Birmingham.) Classification ‘Banking’. Manager of Lloyds Bank, Dudley
from 1945 to 1953, having previously been Assistant Manager of Lloyd’s
Queen Street Branch, Wolverhampton. At the time of joining Dudley Club
he was an Honorary Member of Wolverhampton Rotary Club having
recently been Chairman of Wolverhampton Round Table. He left Dudley
Rotary on being appointed Assistant Manager of Lloyds’ New Street
Birmingham branch. Two years later he was made Assistant District
Manager, and from 1958 until his retirement in November 1963 was
Manager of Lloyds’ Temple Row branch. His entire working career was
with Lloyds Bank: he started at Great Bridge in 1922 and served in a number of Midlands
branches, including Nottingham, before coming to Wolverhampton and then Dudley.