Page 123 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

Ship. He saw action in the Mediterranean, Normandy (D Day), Burma, the Dutch East Indies and
was present at the surrender of Singapore by the Japanese. From 1946 he resumed studies at
the Birmingham School of Architecture, followed by the Royal Academy School of Architecture
and the School of Planning and Research for Regional Development, so he qualified both as an
architect and a Chartered Town Planner. In 1951 he joined the Architects Department of London
County Council where he worked on designs for the Royal Festival Hall and several major housing
developments before returning to live in Birmingham in 1954 and join Alan Young in Dudley.
During the 1960s he taught part time at Birmingham School of Planning and lectured on Modern
Architecture for the University of Birmingham Department of Extra Mural Studies. He had many
outside interests and activities including serving his local church and diocese, fellwalking and
rambling, yachting, and landscape gardening. He was a prominent freemason for over 55 years
(holding high office in the Birmingham Old Edwardian Lodge and Warwickshire Province); a
magistrate on the Birmingham bench 1976-1994; and a lay member of the National Health
Service Medical Disciplinary Tribunal 1987-2000. His birth name was Edward Lloyd Hughes but
he changed it by deed poll shortly before his marriage in 1948.

408 Ernest TOWNSEND (1917-1972) (Inducted 19.7.1965; died 30.4.1972, aged only 55, whilst still a
member.) Furnace Building. Director of Associated Settings & Chimneys Limited, specialists in
the installation of furnaces and gas boilers and construction of brick and concrete furnace
chimneys. He founded the company with two partners in 1939, when he was just 22. The firm
had factory premises in Ham Lane, Kingswinford and offices in Kingswinford High Street. He
grew up in Darby End, Netherton, then moved with his parents to Dudley, and later lived in
Cradley Heath and Pedmore.

409 Kenneth (‘Ken’) Raymond GIRLING (1929-2004) (Inducted 1.11.1965; died
April 2004.) Quantity surveyor. Senior Partner of Girling & Hewett,
chartered quantity surveyors and construction consultants, originally in
Priory Street and later Dixon’s Green, Dudley, and for some years also in
Brierley Hill. He was a founder of the firm in 1960 although he appears to
have been working in the Dudley area several years earlier, and retired
from it about 1994. Ken grew up in Hall Green, Birmingham. During the
War he attended King Edward’s School, Birmingham where he was a keen
member of the School Scout Troop and the Air Training Corps. He left
school at 16 and trained as a surveyor, qualifying as a chartered quantity surveyor in 1951. As a
Rotarian he was closely involved in the design and construction of Rotary House, the residential
home for older people at Russells Hall, Dudley, and was a long-time member - eventually
Chairman (1997-2000) - of its Management Committee. His home was in Kingswinford until
about 1987, and then at Shrawley (between Stourport and Worcester). For his last few years he
lived at Westley Court, Cookley but moved to Hampshire shortly before his death.

410 John (‘Jack’) Bradley PEARSON, CBE (1909-1986) (Inducted 27.3.1966; died 31.10.1986 whilst
still a member.) His original classification was ‘Banking’. He was Manager
of Barclays Bank, Dudley from June 1960 until retiring about the end of
1969, having previously been manager at the Hockley Hill Branch in
Birmingham. On retirement he became a Business consultant. He was a
native of Ettingshall, and maintained a connection with the area as
chairman of the Bilston Horticultural Society in the 1960s, however as a
young man he started as a bank cashier in Dudley and lived in the town
most of his adult life. He was on the management board of hospitals in
Birmingham and Dudley, and was awarded the CBE at New Year 1977/78
for services as Chairman of Dudley Area Health Authority. He had also been treasurer of the
National Association of Health Authorities, member of the Dudley Family Practitioners