Page 48 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

dust extraction devices, chimney cowls and an improved rivet. He attributed his success later in
life to the technical classes he attended at the Dudley Mechanics Institute. It was probably him
who, during the Great War, was Principal of the Wright’s Lane technical School, Old Hill and
Teacher of Machine Construction and Drawing.
He lived in Tipton throughout his life and was closely involved in its affairs: he represented
Tipton on Staffordshire County Council from at least 1924 to 1940 and was a member of Tipton
Urban District Council from 1930. When Tipton became a municipal borough in 1938 he was
elected to be the first mayor but declined the honour because the vote was not unanimous.
Instead he was made an alderman. He was a county magistrate from 1934 and was awarded
the MBE in 1954 for his work as Chairman of the Tipton Local Employment Committee. He never
married.

140 Harold Evelyn HALL (1884-1938) (Elected 4.6.1928; died 10.2.1938 whilst still a member.)
Heating engineer. He was a Director of Hall Bros. (Dudley) Limited, heating and sanitary
engineers with offices in Dixon’s Green and a yard nearby in Hall Street. He founded the firm
about 1920, originally as plumbers and decorators. His son Kenneth (club member #245) joined
him in the business and eventually became the owner. Harold was born at Martley near
Worcester, son of a joiner and carpenter, but the family moved to Malvern when he was a boy.
On leaving school he started as a plumber, then became a house painter. He married a Dudley
girl in Tewkesbury before moving to Dudley immediately before the First World War. He was a
supporter of Dudley British Legion, being Secretary and then Treasurer.

141 Walter John MUNSLOW (1885-1964) (Associate member elected -.10.1928; resigned 31.3.1930.)
Sanitary ware. He was Works Manager of Doulton & Co.’s Springfield
Works at Rowley Regis, a major producer of sanitary ware and glazed
pipes. He was with the firm for more than 50 years, presumably at the
same factory throughout since he was brought up in the neighbourhood.
He started as a clerk in a pottery on leaving school, and by 1911, when he
was only 26, he was already assistant works manager. He was a life-long
worker for the Conservative Party: he held office with the Hill and
Cakemore Conservative Club from its opening in 1912 and with various
local Divisions of the party, finishing as President of the Oldbury and
Halesowen Conservative Association. He was also a director of the Blackheath & District Building
Society and prominent member of the Perseverence masonic lodge, Halesowen (Worshipful
Master 1933-34). He never actually lived in Dudley: after Rowley Regis his home was in
Blackheath, then Halesowen, Quinton and finally West Hagley.

142 Arthur Henry MARTIN (1881-1961) (Elected -.10.1928; member at April 1930 but not at
Dec.1933.) Musical instruments. Managing Director of Saffell & Martin
Limited, musical instrument and gramophone dealers and piano
manufacturers with shops in Dudley High Street and Dale End,
Birmingham, and briefly also in Cardiff and London. He grew up in
Cheltenham where his first job was in a ‘music warehouse’, presumably
that of Dale Forty & Co., major piano manufacturers based in the town.
After marrying in 1906 he moved to Hove where he was a piano tuner in
another piano warehouse. By 1921 he was working in Birmingham as a
piano salesman for Dale Forty. It is not known when he came to Dudley
but he already had numerous long-standing friendships in Birmingham musical circles by 1927
when he and Frederick Saffell opened the shops in Birmingham and Dudley. Saffell, from
Stepney and 10 years his junior, already had an established business making conventional and
auto pianos. The firm Saffell & Martin got into difficulties and was voluntarily wound up in 1934
(but sprang back again in Birmingham for a further 10 years under the control of Saffell alone).