Page 104 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

numerous awards for bravery in fires, including the Watson Meritorious Service Medal (‘The
Fireman’s VC’), and several other awards for bravery and humanitarian actions. For example:
• In January 1938 in Blackpool he stopped a runaway horse that was pulling a loaded coal
wagon: in true film star style, he jumped into a passing car and when the car was level with
the wagon jumped onto it, crawled over the coal, then leapt onto the horse’s back, grabbed
the trailing reins and brought the horse to a standstill. For this he received an award from
the RSPCA.
• In 1960 he bravely tried to rescue a 14-year-old boy, Royston Bate, who had fallen down a
mineshaft into old limestone workings on the east side of Wrens Nest hill, Dudley. Fred was
lowered down the shaft ‘on the end of a rope looped round a tree at the top’ but
unfortunately the boy was found dead. For this action he was awarded the Royal Humane
Society’s bronze medal.
• In fact this was the third occasion he had been lowered into the Wrens Nest caverns: in 1949
he made a fruitless search for the body of a ‘strangled woman’ following a (false!) claim by
the inmate of a mental home; and in 1957 he rescued an Alsatian dog - being bitten for his
pains but again receiving an RSPCA award.
Fred was awarded the MBE in 1956 and the following year was made a Serving Brother of the
Order of St John. In Dudley he was well known for his work for the Sea Cadet Corps.

328 Jack Naylor SMITH (1917-2013) (Inducted 11.11.1952; left June 1971.) Furniture Retailing.
Managing Director of Jones & Co. (Regent House) Limited, house furnishers of 173 High Street,
Dudley and later at 13 Castle Street. His father Reginald William Smith (club member #177) and
grandfather Thomas Naylor Smith were house furnishers before him, trading as ‘Smith of
Dudley’ from showrooms in Wolverhampton Street. Jack joined the firm on leaving Dudley
Grammar School but, probably in the 1940s, branched out on his own by buying the well-
established Jones’ furniture store opposite ‘Top Church’. This was bombed during the last War.
Jack was blind in his right eye, having been hit by a cricket ball at the age of 12, so during the
War served as a special constable rather than in the forces. He was a prominent freemason,
having held high office in the Worcestershire Province (appointed Provincial Grand Senior
Warden, 1979 and Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies, 1986) and being an Eminent
Knight of the Provincial Priory of Worcestershire. He was Advanced into Mark Masonry in the
Mosaic Lodge during 1954 and twice served as Master; was Elevated into Abraham Green Lodge
of Royal Ark Mariner, became Commander in 1968, and appointed to RAM Grand Rank in 1982.
In March 2013, shortly before his death, he was elected as Honorary Member of the Old
Dudleian Lodge in recognition of his contribution to the Lodge and to Freemasonry in general.

329 William (‘Bill’) Emmanuel ROPER (1904 - ?) (Inducted 11.11.1952; left during 1975/76.) Men’s
Furnishing Retailing, changed to Men’s Outfitting (Retailing) in 1959.
Proprietor of the menswear shop ‘Austin Roper’ which was in the Fountain
Arcade, Dudley until 1965 and then in Birdcage Walk. The shop was named
after his son Austin, who was only three years old when Bill set up the
business in 1935 on moving from Wolverhampton. (Austin eventually joined
him and in 1969 also joined the Rotary Club, member #431.) Bill sold the
business in 1974, which by then had both men’s and women’s fashion shops,
but continued for a while as a consultant. His first job on leaving school was
as a motor fitter for the Efficient Motor Company, manufacturer of Juckes motorcycles but it is
not known what other work he did before setting up his menswear business. He was a leading
member of Dudley & District Chamber of Commerce, and lived in The Broadway but in
retirement moved to Kapelle in the Netherlands where a daughter lived.