Page 44 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

He had a very varied career. He was born in Chard, Somerset but as a boy moved to
Blackheath with his parents. He started work as a commercial clerk at the age of 13, a post he
still held 10 years later. By February 1917, when he joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry, he
was Manager at a wire works. His war service was short-lived: he was invalided out after only 6
weeks. He moved to Dudley about 1919 and lived in Wellington Road for 10 years before moving
to Stourbridge. At the start of the last war he was described as Salesman for Paint & Enamel
Manufacturer and also a Civil Defence ambulance driver. In 1947 he was reported in
newspapers as far away as Berwickshire for remarks he made in a talk to the Stourbridge Rotary
Club: ‘Children are like animals, and the only thing they understand is brute force. The proper
correction is the cane on the hand’! At about that time and up to 1955 he was a director and
co-owner of The Birmingham Cleaning Supplies Company.

126 Gerald Griffin WALKER (1889-1970) (Elected 18.10.1926; membership terminated 8.4.1929.)
Electrical engineer. Proprietor of G G Walker & Co, Electric Light & Power Engineers of Hall
Street, Dudley, which he established about 1920 having previously been with the Dudley
corporation power station from 1913 or earlier. His firm carried out all types of industrial and
domestic electrical work. By 1921 he was joined in partnership by S Dudley Heath (whose period
of membership of the Rotary club - member #124 - exactly matched his own). In 1967 G G
Walker & Co (Dudley) Ltd and Harris Electrical Services Ltd of Tipton merged to form the
Mornington Electrical Group.

127 Joseph Valentine WOODHOUSE (1890-1978) (Elected 18.10.1926; resigned 4 July 1927.)
Confectioner, and ‘master baker’. Managing director and later Chairman of T Woodhouse &
Sons, bakers and confectioners, until it was voluntarily wound up in 1944. The firm was founded
by his father Thomas Woodhouse. Joseph and his younger brother, also called Thomas, joined
their father in the business straight from school and became directors in 1915. The firm had a
shop and cafe in Hall Street, and bakery and offices in Tower Street. In 1916 Joseph joined the
Honourable Artillery Company and saw action in Italy. Afterwards he lived at Dixon’s Green and
Gervase Drive, Dudley, then in Chaddesley Corbett through the 1940s, and finally retired to
Weston-super-Mare.

128 Joseph Norwood HICKMAN, JP (1882-1961) (Elected 1.11.1926; resigned 19.11.1928; became
founder President of Brierley Hill Rotary Club in Feb.1939.) Plumber. He was a director of Joseph
Hickman & Sons which, during his period in the club, were painters and
decorators of Cressett Street, Brockmoor, Brierley Hill. His father - Joseph
senior - had started the business, as plumber, painter and glazier, when in
his 20s. Joseph joined the firm in 1907 and he and his older brother
William became partners with their father about 1915. The business grew
to become J Hickman and Son (Brierley Hill) Limited, a leading firm of
Midlands building contractors. He was its chairman for many years,
stepping down only weeks before his death. He started work at the age of
14 as a ‘Lad Clerk’ with the goods department of the Great Western
Railway based at Birmingham station, for an annual salary of £20. By the time he left 10 years
later, in April 1907 when he started to work for his father, his salary had risen to £80.
Joseph had 38 years of local government service, first as a member of Kingswinford Rural
District Council from 1915 to the mid 1920s and Chairman from 1921; then when the districts of
Kingswinford, Quarry Bank and Brierley Hill amalgamated in 1934 he became chairman of the
new authority and served three more terms as chairman of Brierley Hill Urban Council; finally
he was a member of Staffordshire County Council from 1943 to 1952. During the last war he
was chairman of many local charitable and war savings efforts and chairman of Civil Defence in
Brierley Hill. A keen sportsman he was a founder member and first captain of Brierley Hill
Associates Football Club and chairman for 20 years of Brierley Hill Alliance Football Club. For