Page 103 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

20. It looks as though young Joseph joined the recently formed Morris and Singer car dealers
Whittingham & Co at that time. The firm rapidly grew to become the largest of its type in the
town, with the main showroom in The Broadway opposite Tower Street and repair garages in
Birmingham Road and Stourbridge Road. Joseph had been Sales Manager until taking over as
Managing Director in 1951 on the retirement of the founder of the firm, Percy Whittingham. He
lived at Sedgley most of his life, moving to Wollaston, Stourbridge only in 1964.

324 Cyril Thomas DAVIES (1908-1989) (Inducted 11.11.1952; left 20.9.1954.) Painting and
Decorating. Described as a ‘Master Painter’ he was the proprietor of a house painting and
decorating business based at Bourne Street, Dudley and previously at Castle Hill where it was
founded by his father. He left the Club because his business took him away from Dudley,
although he remained living in the town.

325 Frank MOULE (1914-1976) (inducted 11.11.1952; left 1.12.1953.) Newsagent (Retailing). He
was a newsagent and stationer with a shop in Hall Street, Dudley. He probably joined the family
business immediately after the last War, having previously worked as an estate agent’s clerk.
Until the 1970s when he opened a small shop in the Churchill Precinct under his own name, he
traded as A Moule, maintaining the name of the newsagent and tobacconist business run by his
mother Agnes following the death of her husband in 1916. Frank’s father had been the licensee
of the Hope Tavern in Dudley High Street.

326 Benjamin (‘Ben’) PRICE (1895-1974) (Inducted as an Additional Active Member 18.11.1952; left
20.9.1965.) Mining Engineering. Additional Active Member. Consulting
mining engineer in partnership with Basil Poole (member #303) in the firm
of Johnson Poole & Bloomer, Priory Chambers, Priory Street, from 1951
until he retired in 1966. The son of a colliery ‘overman’ in a mine at Old
Hill, on leaving school he started work underground, presumably in the
same pit, as a pony driver. He must have shown promise because in 1916
he moved to train and work in the Earl of Dudley’s mines. By 1921, aged
26, he was Manager of H S Pitt & Co’s Ramrod Hall Colliery, Rowley Regis.
He returned to the Earl of Dudley’s mines when appointed Manager of
Baggeridge Colliery in or before 1928, and then as Manager and Agent of Hamstead Colliery in
1935. Following nationalisation of the coal industry in January 1947 he became an area manager
for the National Coal Board West Midlands Division. He was President of the South Staffordshire
branch of the Institution of Mining Engineers 1948-49 and was awarded the Institution’s bronze
medal for a paper on the Working of the South Staffordshire Thick Coal. He lived at Quinton
until 1956 before moving to Wall Heath.

327 Fred WADE, MBE (christened Fred, not Frederick) (1908-1979) (inducted
November 1952; resigned June 1953 because of pressure of work.) Chief
Fire Officer for the Borough of Dudley from January 1948 until retiring in
June 1968. He assumed command of Dudley Fire and Ambulance Service
on 1 January 1948 when all fire brigades throughout the country reverted
to local authority control after having been merged into the National Fire
Service in 1941. A native of Accrington, he left school at 12 and spent some
years as an assistant joiner and builder in his father’s business. Thereafter
Fred’s entire career was with the fire service. He joined the Accrington
Brigade in 1926, then served six years with Blackpool Brigade from 1934, rising from fireman to
sub-officer. In 1940 he became Chief Officer of Rhyl Fire Brigade, and in 1941 the West Wales
Divisional Officer of the newly-formed National Fire Service, based at Swansea. In 1945 he was
promoted to Deputy Fire Force Commander for North Wales area and moved to Colwyn Bay.
Three years later he came to Dudley. Fred must have been a fearless character … he received