Page 139 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

and the Dudley premises have become a significant veterinary hospital. Alan retired in 1999 to
pursue other interests.
He was a successful breeder of Tamworth pigs and continues to act as a judge of pig classes
at agricultural shows. He was a long-serving member of the board of the Rare Breeds Survival
Trust (RBST) and was Chairman of the Board from 1995 to 1998. He was then appointed as a
Vice-President and continues in that role. Since 2017 he has chaired the Nominations
Committee of RBST. In the 1990s he was a director of The British Pig Association and the Pig
Importers and Distribution Company. Alan was a Trustee of the Dudley International Piano
Competition. (Winners of the competition included the now internationally famous Paul Lewis.)
A great Francophile, he owns homes in Normandy and Corsica, so to improve his language skills
he took an A Level in French at Dudley College and then gained a BA degree in French from
Warwick University in summer 2014 after 4 years of part time study.
Alan was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, into a farming family. He attended Foyle
College boarding school and the local grammar school before studying Veterinary Medicine at
Trinity College Dublin. Curiously the course included a BA in Celtic Art. After graduating in 1968
he did MSc research in Steroid Endocrinology at Leeds University, then spent 10 months
practising as a Vet in his home town of Londonderry before moving to Dudley.

462 William Charles WELCH (1919-1981) (Inducted Sept.1974; died in June 1981 whilst still a
member.) Quantity Surveyor (Local Government). Chief Quantity Surveyor in the Architects
Department of Wolverhampton Council from 1965 until retiring in October 1980. Unfortunately
he became ill and died just months later. He spent his early years in Leven on the north side of
the Firth of Forth, Scotland but in the early 1930s the family moved to Maidstone in Kent. He
and his twin brother enlisted in 1939 and were part of the Expeditionary force that was
evacuated from Dunkirk. He gained his commission in the Royal Artillery and spent the rest of
the war as an artillery officer, lieutenant, with the 8th Army under Montgomery. He was in
North Africa at Tobruk and El Alamein, then in Italy and Germany before returning to England in
1945. (His brother was captured in North Africa but died when the German POW ship was sunk
in the Mediterranean.) After the war Charles returned to Maidstone and married there, but
worked for Middlesex County Council where he trained as a Quantity Surveyor. He moved to
Coventry in 1952 and worked for the City Council until 1959 but broken by an 18 month period
with Burton-on-Trent Borough Council during 1954/55. He then joined Dudley County Borough
Council as Chief Quantity Surveyor in 1959 before taking a similar post at Wolverhampton. He
was a keen member of Blakedown Golf Club.

463 Leslie (‘Les’) Richard HARRISON (1928- ) (Member 1961-1973 - see #375;
re-joined Sept. 1974; left c.1991.) Stationery Distributing. After leaving
Herald Press and the Dudley Herald he set up in business as Harrison
Stationers (Dudley) Limited in Tower Street, Dudley. He retired and closed
the business in 1992. He was born and lived in Dudley until the 1970s
when he moved to Oldswinford, Stourbridge.