Page 47 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

joined as a clerk about 1900. When he left the Rotary club in 1929 his occupation was described
as Motor Spirit Retail. At 1939, by which time he was living in south Birmingham, he was again
described as a drysalter traveller so he may have been with the same company throughout his
working career.

135 (Seems to be someone missing about here.)

136 John Benjamin ROUND (1874-1958) (Elected 21.2.1927; resigned 31.6. 1946.) Builder; Director
of Mark Round & Sons, building contractors of New Street, Dudley. On
leaving school he started as an assistant carpenter for his builder father
Mark Round. In the early 1900s he and his brother Joseph became directors
of the business, and after their father’s death in 1910 they took control.
Joseph withdrew at the end of 1923 and John continued to manage the firm
until his retirement in 1946. For a short period from the end of the Great
War until 1923 he and his brother joined with other prominent local
builders as ‘Dudley Amalgamated Builders’. In 1929, with Rtns W J
Thompson and W Shuttleworth, and W E Ballard who joined the club later,
he became a director of the newly created Willmot Trucks and Products Ltd, founders, engineers
and manufacturers of trolleys and wagons. He was also a Director of the Dudley and District
Benefit Building Society from at least 1915 to 1934 and a prominent member of the Wesley
United Methodist Church and the Dudley Temperance Society. He was the father of Dorothy
Round, the celebrated tennis player and Wimbledon ladies champion of 1934 and 1937. He
lived in Park Road until 1946 then moved to Kinver for a few years before returning to St James’s
Road, Dudley.

137 Frank Leslie DENT (1902-1984) (Elected 17.10.1927; resigned 1.10.1928.) Drugs, Retailing. He
was presumably the principal pharmacist at Needham’s Chemists in Dudley Market Place having
previously been an assistant in the firm’s shop in Walsall although living in Wolverhampton. He
left the club to start his own pharmacy and chemist’s shop in Gaolgate Street, Stafford which
continued up to and for a few years after his death. Between 1947 and 1965 he also owned the
pharmacy in Market Place, Brewood. In 1960 he returned to his home town to live in Tettenhall,
Wolverhampton. He was a proficient golfer and in his younger years played for Staffordshire
county.

138 Charles Frederick FIELDSEND (1897-1976) (Elected -.12.1927; membership terminated
19.3.1928.) Vehicle Industry, Industrial Trucks. His business and position are not identified. The
notable industrial truck makers in Dudley were W Goodyear & Sons of Churchfield Street and
Willmot Truck & Products of Ivanhoe Street. However, since he came from the Sheffield area
(where he was a mechanical engineer with steel manufacturer Vickers Limited), it is more likely
he was with Bean’s car and truck factory at Tipton which at the time was under the control of
the Sheffield steel maker Hadfield’s. He left the club to set up his own firm C F Fieldsend & Co,
specialist steel alloy manufacturers with works in Sheffield and offices in Birmingham and
Sheffield. He had homes in both cities although during the Second War he lived in the Swan
Hotel, Ludlow. He eventually retired to Cornwall. C F Fieldsend & Co continued in the family
until 2003.

139 Albert PARKER, JP MBE (1877-1958) (Elected 16.1.1928; club President 1936-37; still a member
at May 1949.) Dust & Grit Elimination. He was owner and MD of the Tipton Tub & Tube
Company, sheet metal fabricators, founded in 1915 but previously operating simply as A Parker.
The factory at Bloomfield, Tipton (known locally as ‘The Smoosh’) produced hoppers, chutes,
skips, wheelbarrows, wagons, and Parker’s Patent grit catchers. Albert started as a mechanical
draughtsman and was evidently inventive because he obtained several patents for his industrial