Page 29 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

from 1905, and also Secretary of Rotherham Town Football Club. From Rotherham he came to
Dudley in 1910, but well into retirement he returned to live at Wickersley near Rotherham in
1949. He was succeeded as Conservative agent in Dudley by Robert Neave, club member #222.

72 Norman SMITH (1893-1950) (Elected 5.3.1923; presumably left in 1924.) Cinema Manager.
Manager of the Empire Picture Palace, Dudley briefly from January 1922 until February 1924.
He had previously been manager and licensee of the Darlaston Cinema and advertising manager
of the Savoy Cinema, Stratford Road, Birmingham. He left to become advertising manager for
the Record Cinema Circuit in the Midlands, which included the Empire, Dudley. A few years later
he was Midland Sales Manager for the Paramount Film Company. During the War he was
Birmingham Branch Manager for the American film production and distribution company RKO
Pictures.

73 Charles COULSON (1877-1937) (Elected 9.4.1923; died 27.7.1937 aged 59 whilst still a member.)
Builder & Contractor, but his classification was changed in 1927 to Timber Merchant
(presumably to allow J B Round to join as a Builder). Proprietor of his own building company
based in Stafford Street, Dudley. A farmer’s son from Denstone, north Staffordshire, he came
to Dudley in 1900 and, at the age of 23, joined in partnership with established builder George
Oakley as Oakley & Coulson. They constructed a number of prestigious buildings including
Dudley Teacher Training College and the Cape Hill ‘New Cape Electric Theatre’. In 1912 they
dissolved the partnership amicably, with Coulson continuing to trade under the same name and
Oakley as ‘Oakley & Son’. At the end of the Great War all the significant local builders combined
to form ‘Dudley Amalgamated Builders’. They split up again in 1923 and Charles Coulson
resumed in his own name as building contractors, joinery manufacturers and builders’
merchants. The firm continued after his death until 1995.

74 Horace Rupert WOODALL (1884-1963) (Elected 9.4.1923; resigned 7.3.1927.) Brass Founder.
Director of the family firm of Isaiah Woodall & Sons of Town Works, Porter Street off Trindle
Road, Dudley, brass and iron founders, specialists in the manufacture of hearth furniture. The
firm later turned to engineering and the manufacture of bakery equipment. Horace joined the
business, which had been founded by his father in 1879, on leaving school. He became MD on
his father’s death in 1918, and after his own death the firm continued under the direction of his
three sons until about 1990. During the First World War it made parts for hand grenades, and
during the last war made parts for tanks and aircraft. Horace lived in Firs Street, Kates Hill but
later moved to Wollaston and then to Pedmore.

75 George Henry HEAD (1869-1955) (Elected 23.4.1923; membership terminated 21.3.1927.) Pig
iron smelting. Managing Director and Secretary of William Roberts (Tipton) Limited, operators
of the Tipton Green Blast Furnaces located close to Tipton railway station. These were major
producers of pig iron for steel making and had their own forges, foundry, railway sidings and
canal basins. He was born and raised in Bromyard, Herefordshire, son of a gardener, but came
to Tipton as a young man as an ‘ironmaster’s clerk’. By the age of 30 he was company secretary
but it was about 20 years later that he became MD. He lived at Tipton Green House in Alexandra
Road until moving to Edgbaston about 1920, then retired first to Lancing, Sussex just before the
last War, and later to a wealthy area of Surbiton, Surrey. He left a substantial estate on his
death.

76 William Oliver BISSELL (1887-1975) (Elected 28.5.1923; resigned 20.6.1927.) General Cooper.
Managing Director of George Bissell & Sons Ltd, coopers and coal merchants, of Halesowen
Road, Netherton. Successive generations of the Bissell family were coopers in Netherton from
1821. The firm produced thousands of casks annually for the brewing industry and for packing
goods, and had an extensive trade in coal, coke and breeze. William started work as a solicitor’s