Page 118 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

386 Geoffrey (‘Geoff’) Alfred DUNTON (1907-1971) (Inducted 8.4.1963; died
5.10.1971 whilst still a member.) Finance - Loans Building Society.
Secretary and General Manager of Dudley Building Society. He joined the
Society in 1952 as Assistant Secretary and took over as Secretary in 1963
when Reg Tanfield (club member #64) retired through ill health. Previously
he had been on the staff of Barclays Bank, Dudley as an accountant and in
charge of mechanisation. He was brought up in Hurst Hill, Coseley,
attended Dudley Grammar School and became head boy, then gained a
Bachelor of Commerce degree at London University. Geoff was Treasurer
of Priory House Conservative Club for some years as well as Rotary Club treasurer. He lived in
Wolverhampton rather than Dudley all his adult life.

387 David John (‘Jugger’) WHORTON (1935-2008) (Inducted 24.6.1963; left Nov.1982.) Automobile
distributing. Director of Whittingham & Co., the Broadway Garage, Dudley. Following a takeover
this became PJ Evans (Dudley) Ltd of King Street, so he became director of P J Evans and later
the parent company Evans Halshaw (Midlands) Limited. He retired as a director in 1988. His
father Joseph Howard Whorton (club member #323) was MD of Whittingham’s before him, and
his grandfather Joseph Henry Whorton (member #105) was also a car dealer. David appears to
have worked briefly as a civil servant before joining the motor business. He was brought up in
Sedgley and later lived in Wollaston, then Oldswinford and latterly Pedmore. The name Jugger
Whorton was a play on the phrase ‘Jug of Water’, and for many years after he left the club the
members used to toast ‘The Queen ... and Jugger Whorton’!

388 Philip Walton ROGERS, MC (1921-2013) (Inducted 17.6.1963; left late 1970.) Education -
Grammar Schools. Headmaster of Dudley Grammar School, St James's Road, Dudley from 1963
to 1970. He was born in Canton, China but educated at Warwick School. He joined Jesus College,
Cambridge in January 1940 to read History but his studies were interrupted by the war. In March
1942 he was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and sent to the Far East. He
was transferred to the Royal Leicestershire Regiment and was selected to serve in one of
Brigadier Wingate’s early Chindit operations. Following illness he joined the York and Lancaster
Regiment in Burma. On one mission he tracked a group of enemy soldiers at close quarters for
a whole day, then took possession of all the equipment they had left scattered on the ground.
For this, he was awarded the Military Cross. The citation stated ‘nothing ever deterred
Lieutenant Rogers’. In October 1946 he returned to college to complete his studies. He
graduated BA 1947; MA 1949, and with a Certificate in Education. Following graduation he
served as History master at Ripon Grammar School, where he wrote the history of the school.
From 1953-1957 he was Second History master at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, then
from 1958-1962 Senior History master at Wolverhampton Grammar School, before coming to
Dudley. In 1970, he became Headmaster of Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School which
later developed under his leadership into a flourishing Sixth Form College. He retired to
Kettering. He was a freemason, initiated into the Old Dudleian Lodge in 1967 and subsequently
became Worshipful Master of his school lodge in Brighton.

389 Leonard (‘Len’) Frank EBOURNE (1915-2006) (Inducted 17.6.1963; left 21.6.1965.) Steel Pen
Manufacturing. He was with Joseph Gillott & Sons Ltd, makers of pen nibs, castors and furniture
components at their Victoria Works, Birmingham Road, Dudley, but perhaps as a sales manager
rather than a director because until at least 1963 he owned a fruiterers business in High Street,
Halesowen. He lived in Halesowen most of his adult life although brought up in Handsworth.