Page 13 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

24 William John THOMPSON, JP, Major (1871-1959) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922;
resigned 17.3.1930.) ‘Boiler engineer’. Director of John Thompson Ltd and
its many subsidiary companies based in Wolverhampton, Dudley and
overseas, manufacturers of boilers, motor pressings, aero components,
window frames, steel chimneys and a wide variety of metal fabrications.
He was one of the four sons of founder John Thompson and Chairman of
the company from 1924. Educated at Trinity College Cambridge, he joined
the Dudley Volunteers (1st Volunteer Brigade of the Worcestershire
Regiment) in 1904, becoming Captain and officer in charge of G Company
in 1906. At this time he was also Captain of No.1 Company Dudley Boys’
Brigade. In August 1914, during the First World War, he was promoted to Major commanding
the 7th Reserve Battalion Worcestershire Regiment but relinquish the post at the end of 1915
through ill health. He was a Dudley magistrate for 40 years (1908-1948), and Chairman then
President of the Dudley & District Liberal Association from 1909 to at least 1916. Although he
maintained links with Dudley he became an important figure and benefactor in the county of
Worcestershire. In 1912 he moved home from Hagley to Harborough Hall, Blakedown, a Grade
II listed building dating from 1635. (During the last War, sick children were evacuated to a
‘hospital’ constructed in the grounds of the Hall.) He was appointed High Sheriff of
Worcestershire for 1941. In the 1940s he purchased The Greyfriars, an historic Franciscan friary
and school in Worcester, to save it from ruin and demolition. He paid for its immediate repair
and presented it to the Worcestershire Archaeological Society (of which he was a member from
1925 and President 1947-50).

25 William TIMMINS (1860-1937) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922; died 10.2.1937 whilst still
a member.) Oil and colour merchant. Director of Timmins & Foulkes Ltd, brass founders,
builders’ merchants, ironmongers, painters and decorators, and plumbers and glaziers, etc.,
incorporated in May 1916 and based in King Street. Straight from school he joined his father’s
business as Oil & Colour Dealer in Hall Street, but his father retired to manage the town library
so by 1899 William was running the firm in his own name, selling paints, varnishes, hat polish
(to make old straw hats new!), glass and lead. He was a described as one of the best-read men
in the Midlands and might have followed his father as librarian were it not for his political views
... he was a prominent Dudley Liberal. He was an active member for 60 years of Dudley Literary
Society, which he helped found in 1876, and Dudley Book Club, and was Secretary of the Dudley
Garrick Club (a most up-market amateur dramatic society!) which flourished between 1870 and
1890. In younger life he was a keen cricketer and fisherman. He was a bachelor and lived with
his parents in Grange Road, and in later life in The Broadway.

26 Albert Bernard WHITEHOUSE (1875-1935) (Founder member, elected
22.5.1922; President 1929-30; died 29.4.1935 whilst still a member.)
Solicitor and Clerk to the Commissioners of Income Tax. Partner in the
firm of Whitehouse & Brettell, solicitors, from c.1916 and previously
practising as A B Whitehouse & Co. from 1901. The firm moved from
Castle Street to Priory Street in 1930. Much of his work was prosecuting
or defending in the local Magistrates Courts. He was born in
Kidderminster and attended the King Charles Grammar School there but
he had a head start practising law in Dudley because both his parents
were Dudley solicitors and he married the Town Clerk’s daughter. He
was a noted Black Country historian, antiquarian and naturalist, and a staunch Churchman. He
was closely interested in the work of the NSPCC and the Dudley Dispensary and was Secretary
of both for many years. He lived at 1 Moss Grove, Kingswinford, and was President of
Kingswinford Conservative Association at the time of his death.