Page 41 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

112 Herman SMITH (1880-1947) (Elected 17.5.1926; resigned 11.1.1932.) Art
metal manufacturer. From about 1916 he was managing director of
Herman Smith Limited of Reliance Works, King Street Passage, Dudley. His
father Ethelred founded the business in 1895 when he bought up the
bankrupt Reliance Works. At first it made iron and steel hearth fenders,
then a wider range of ‘art metal’ products, and during the Second World
War produced radiators and oil coolers for the Hawker Typhoon fighter-
bomber. Herman Smith was a Dudley councillor from 1923-26 and a
governor of Dudley Guest Hospital for over 20 years. He lived in Oakham
Road. His son Herman Geldert Smith continued the business and joined the Rotary club in 1944
(member #269).

113 John Brock ALLON, OBE (1888-1959) (Elected 5.7.1926; resigned
4.2.1929.) Town Clerk and Clerk of the Peace for Dudley from March
1926 to March 1929. He moved on to become Town Clerk of
Wolverhampton from 1929 to 1953, and became a member of
Wolverhampton Rotary Club. He grew up in South Shields, County
Durham, graduated with a BA from London University in 1909, and was
then articled back in his home town to the Town Clerk of South Shields.
(The fact that his father was an ex-Mayor probably helped!) He was
admitted as a solicitor in 1913. He became Deputy Town Clerk of Exeter
from 1914 and Deputy Town Clerk of Middlesborough from 1920. He
was awarded the OBE in 1951, the same year he was President of the Society of Town Clerks. In
retirement he was chairman of Wolverhampton Hospital Group Management Committee.

--- Clifford BRAY, (1887-1937) Cinema Manager, was elected as a member on 4.10.1926 but by
January 1927 had not attended a meeting ... so he was struck from the register on 7.2.1927. He
was General Manager of the Criterion Picture House, High Street, Dudley from 1925, having
previously been manager of the Palace Cinema, Halesowen. He went on to be the promoter and
Manager of the grand new Central Theatre, Stourbridge from its opening in 1929.

114 Thomas CHILTON (1876-1957) (Associate Member, elected 4.10.1926; made Senior Active
Member 12.12.1944. He died 26.3.1957 after over 30 years as a member.) Wholesale clothing
manufacturer. Co-director with his older brother William of Chilton Bros., woollen merchants
and wholesale clothiers of Queen’s Cross, and of Midland Manufacturing Co., costume
manufacturers of Wolverhampton Street, Dudley. He was also a director of the Dudley Motor
Co. Ltd and wholesale shirt manufacturers Carmalt Lang & Co. Ltd of Birmingham, and a
prominent Freemason. Chilton Brothers Ltd was voluntarily wound up in 1957 soon after
Thomas’s death. He left school before 14 and worked first as a coal loader for his father before
becoming a tailor. William and himself were inducted into the Rotary club on the same day (see
next entry). They lived in adjacent houses in Himley Road. Thomas died in a motor accident
when his car struck a house in Waterloo Street, Dudley.

115 William CHILTON (1873-1962) (Elected 4.10.1926; dogged by serious health problems for many
years; made a Senior Active Member in Dec.1944; left 12.6.1956 and died 17.2.1962.) Wholesale
clothing manufacturer. Joint owner with his younger brother Thomas of Chilton Bros., woollen
merchants and wholesale clothiers of Queen’s Cross, and the Midland Manufacturing Co.,
costume manufacturers of Wolverhampton Street, Dudley. On leaving school he became a
draper’s assistant but set up his own business as a tailor aged 22, first at Wellington Wharf
(believed to be near Round Oak Steel Works) and then at Queens Cross. In 1901 he was joined
by his brother Thomas and they continued as Chilton Bros. for the next 46 years. He and Thomas
joined the club on the same day. His son Norman became a member briefly during 1937-38