Page 24 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

57 Ernest William TAME (1885-1964) (Elected 16.10.1922; resigned
15.9.1924.) Town Clerk and Clerk of the Peace for Dudley from 1922 to
1924. He left to take up the position of Town Clerk of Birkenhead, which
he held for the next 25 years. During the Second World War he was Air
Raid Precautions Controller of Birkenhead (and ‘food executive officer’
and ‘national registration officer’), for which he was awarded the OBE. He
was also responsible, jointly with his counterpart in Liverpool, for
construction of the Mersey Tunnel, and served as Chairman of the Law
Committee of the Association of Municipal Corporations 1943-45. He
retired in 1949 in order to become a part-time member of the newly formed North Western Gas
Board.
A native of Bristol, he was articled to the city’s Town Clerk in 1908, passed his final law
examinations in 1913, and continued as Assistant Solicitor to Bristol corporation until 1919.
During that period, as a Captain in the newly formed 6th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
territorial force, he saw active service in France and Italy from 1914 to 1918, including Ypres and
Passchendaele. From Bristol he moved to Reading as Deputy Town Clerk before leaving three
years later for Dudley.

58 William (‘Will’) Charles CAMM, JP LL.M (1873-1960) (Elected 16.10.1922; President 1927-29;
made an Honorary Member shortly before his death in 1960.) Solicitor.
Partner with Gilbert Slater in the firm Slater & Camm of Wolverhampton
Street, Dudley from 1903 until Slater’s retirement in June 1926. He
continued to practice as Slater & Camm until his death aged 87. Will was
brought up at Burnt Tree, Tipton, but his father died when Will was just 13,
leaving his widowed mother in reduced circumstances. So Will supposedly
started in the legal profession at age 14, at first as a solicitor’s clerk, and
then articled to Slater & Co. as a trainee solicitor from 1899. Once he had
qualified he gave courses of lectures to articled clerks on behalf of
Birmingham Law Society from 1907. From 1923 until 1944 was a part-time lecturer in the Faculty
of Law at Birmingham University, in recognition of which, the university awarded him an
honorary Master of Laws degree in 1950 and made him Honorary Reader in Legal Ethics.
Will Camm had many outside interests and responsibilities. In politics, he joined the Dudley
and District Liberal Association in the 1890s and was in turn Secretary, Chairman then President
for 30 years. He was also President of the Dudley Gladstone Liberal Club in New Street, and
President of the Dudley Branch of the League of Nations Union. He had a close interest in
literature, the arts and culture, and rose to be president of several organisations in which he
was closely involved: Dudley Literary Society, Dudley Bohemian Society, Dudley & District Art
Circle, and the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society (in which he led many a debate
against Neville Chamberlain). He was also a co-opted member of Dudley Public Libraries
Committee for a remarkable 54 years until he stepped down at his own request just weeks
before his death. In addition he was a Dudley magistrate from 1938 to 1949. Will never married
but looked after his widowed mother for the rest of her life.

59 John Henry GRINDLEY, DSc MIMechE (1873-1969) (Elected 6.11.1922; resigned 16.4.1928.)
Principal of the Dudley Municipal Technical School from 1919 to 1928. He was an outstanding
scientist of international repute. Born and raised in Manchester he worked as a toolmaker for
4 years before attending the university (then called Victoria University) to study for a BSc, which
he gained with first class honours. He stayed on from 1898 to 1901 as a Whitworth Scholar
(named after the inventor of the British Standard for screw threads) in the Whitworth
Engineering Laboratory at Owens College, Victoria University. He carried out research and
published papers on Superheated Steam for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of
Science in 1902. From 1901 to 1904 he was head of the engineering department at Huddersfield