Page 25 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

Technical College, then in 1904 he was appointed head of the Walker Engineering Laboratories
at Liverpool University. From 1907 he was Principal of the Higher College of Engineering in Giza,
Egypt. At January 1912 he became first Principal of the new Crawford Technical Institute in Cork
city, Ireland where he served with distinction until leaving in December 1919 to take up the
appointment at Dudley. Immediately before joining the Rotary club he had visited Egypt and
did so again in 1926. He left the club and Dudley to take up an appointment by the Egyptian
Government as an expert for technical education. In 1937 he was made a Commander of the
Order of the Nile by the King of Egypt in recognition of his valuable services. He appears to have
been a regular visitor to Egypt until at least 1955, by which time he was over 80 years old.

60 Rev. Arthur Arden Hyde MESSITER (1882-1951) (Elected 6.11.1922; resigned 18.6.1923.) Parish
clergyman. Vicar of St Mary’s Church, Kingswinford and rural dean of
Himley from 1913 to 1936, then vicar and rural dean of West Bromwich.
In 1940 he became Rector of Hardwicke near Aylesbury and remained
there until his death. At Hardwicke he took a keen interest in all village
affairs and was chairman of the Parish Council, an Inspector of Schools,
and a member of Aylesbury Photographic Club.
He was born in Dudley, son of the well-known local surgeon Dr
Matthew Arden Messiter, and brother of Cyril Cassan Messiter, a founder
member of the Rotary Club. He was educated at Repton School in
Derbyshire, New College Oxford (where he rowed for the college) and Cuddesdon Theological
College near Oxford. He was ordained as a Deacon in 1906 and appointed first to St Benedict’s,
Bordesley and then St Barnabas, Balsall Heath, Birmingham before coming to Kingswinford.
During the first War he was an Army chaplain and served with the YMCA in France, 1917-18.
(The YMCA helped in field hospitals, canteens, and recreation camps.) This experience
stimulated his long involvement with the British Legion. Although he had been a motorist since
1910 his concentration seems to have lapsed as he got older: in 1946 he was fined 10 shillings
by the Banbury magistrates for failing to conform to a No Entry sign - he said he did not see the
word ‘No’ on the sign! - and 4 years later was fined £1 with £1.1s.0d costs for inconsiderate
driving when he pulled out of a layby into the path of a lorry and van.

61 Hubert Charles STONE (1892-1959) (Elected 6.11.1922; resigned
2.3.1925.) School master. He was a teacher at Dudley Grammar School
from 1915, living at Queen’s Cross, but in 1927 moved to Stourbridge and
joined the staff of the Oldswinford Hospital School for Boys. The following
year he was appointed Headmaster. He remained there until retiring in
1950. He never married.
He was raised in Aston, Birmingham and educated at the King Edward’s
School and Birmingham University, graduating in 1913 with a BA degree.
His first teaching post was at Alleyne’s Grammar School, Stevenage before
coming to Dudley. From 1916-18 he was released for War Service, seeing much action in France
and Italy with the 2nd and 7th Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment as a Lieutenant.
Subsequently, in the Territorials, he was promoted to Captain and then Major. He was well
known for his work for the Scout movement. In 1922 he set up the 1st Dudley Grammar School
Troop and was Dudley District Scoutmaster, eventually becoming Assistant District
Commissioner. In Stourbridge he became chairman of the Stourbridge Boy Scouts Association
and was instrumental in obtaining the Kinver camp for the scouts of Worcestershire.