Page 135 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

Ernest’s father was soon back in business, first as MD of Edwin Taylor Stamping Works in
Birmingham, then built up the successful Stockham Group of companies. Ernest became a
naturalised British citizen in December 1946; was educated at the prestigious Westminster
School during 1946-51 (following in the footsteps of his brother Robert); then did two years
National Service with the Royal Regiment of Artillery. He continued in the Territorial Army 1955-
59, being promoted to Lieutenant. He spent 15 months in the USA in 1956/57 as an engineering
trainee before becoming involved in the family businesses. His home was at Norton, Stourbridge
until he retired to Bewdley.

452 James (‘Jim’) SMITH (1938- ) (Inducted 29.1.1973; left in April 1977.)
Building society. Manager of the Leeds Permanent Building Society branch,
High Street, Dudley from 1970. He was born and raised in Liverpool, then
did National Service in the RAF. He started work in Liverpool as a ‘rep’ for
Leeds Permanent before coming to Dudley. He left in 1977 on being made
manager of the Bolton branch but was made redundant in 1991. He was a
member of the Rotary Club of Turton (in Bolton) 1980-2011.

453 John Percival BERRY (1929-2022) (Inducted 29.1.1973; left in 1996/97.)
Law, Courts. Clerk to the Justices and Secretary to the Lord Chancellor’s
Advisory Committee for Dudley, based at Dudley Magistrates Court from
1971 until he retired in 1991. He was born and raised in Newport, South
Wales. On leaving high school in 1948 he did 2 years’ National Service with
the RAF, principally in administrative duties. He then joined the Civil
Service in London but his section manager persuaded him to study for the
law, which he did during the early 1950s. Whilst practising as a lawyer he
lived in the London suburbs of Beckenham and then Old Windsor. In 1960
he was called to the Bar and soon afterwards moved to Maidenhead, Berkshire. Then in 1965
he chose a new career path to become Deputy Chief Clerk to the Metropolitan magistrates in
London for two years. In 1967 he was appointed Deputy Clerk to the Justices at Frome, Somerset
(for the divisions of Shepton Mallet, Frome, Keynsham, Weston, Temple Cloud and Kilmersdon).
A year later he became Justices Clerk to the Neath County and Neath Borough courts, South
Wales where he stayed 3 years before taking charge at Dudley. During his period in Dudley he
lived in Finchfield, Wolverhampton until 1984 and then Priory Close, Dudley. He moved from
Dudley in 2004, spending a year with a daughter at Mobberley, Cheshire, then 8 years at the
Gower, before moving to Macclesfield, Cheshire. Finally he and his wife moved to a care home
in Stafford in 2020.

454 Alfred (‘Fred’) AUSTIN (1928-2019) (Inducted 9.7.1973; President 1982-83 & 1994-95; made a
Paul Harris Fellow 1999, with added ‘sapphire’ in 2011; died 1.5.2019 whilst still a member.)
Education, secondary/comprehensive schools. Headmaster of Dudley
Grammar School from 1970, renamed the Dudley School when it became
a mixed comprehensive in 1975, and changed again to Castle High School
before he retired in 1985. He succeeded Philip Rogers (member #388)
and was followed by Ken West (member #506). In Dudley he lived first at
the school house in St James’s Road, and then in Priory Close before
moving to Kings Bromley in 2017 to the home of a daughter.
He was born Fredi Stiller into a Jewish family in Ostrava,
Czechoslovakia. His father died when he was only 4 months old so his
mother was left as a single parent with Fredi and his two older sisters, and a busy linen and
drapery shop to run. Fredi had a comfortable upbringing until, at the age of 10, the Nazis
invaded. Just before midnight on 18 March 1939, he was woken by the noise of German soldiers