Page 5 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

Rotary Club of Dudley

Who’s Who

A Biographical Directory of members since the Club’s formation in 1922

NOTE: Each entry shows membership number (bold where confirmed by documentary records
and italic when inferred from the date a member joined); full name and titles, followed by dates
of birth and death where known; period of membership and principal offices held; Rotary
‘Classification’, i.e. business, profession or other occupation represented; and biographical details.

‘ORIGINAL MEMBERS’ [Nos. 1 to 41 were regarded as ‘Original Members’]

1 Thomas Willetts ADSHEAD, JP (1863-1947) (Founder member, elected
22.5.1922; resigned 19.5.1924.) Bedstead manufacturer. Managing
director for 50 years of T. Adshead & Sons, fender, bedstead and art metal
goods manufacturer, Paragon Works, Angel Street, Dudley. (During the
First World War the firm made Mills grenades.) He was also a Director of
the Dudley and District Benefit Building Society from c.1909 to 1945 and
Chairman for 12 years; a Dudley Councillor (Liberal) from 1897 to 1942,
Mayor 1918/19 & 1919/20, and Alderman from 1921; and a Magistrate at
Halesowen from c.1906 and Dudley from c.1918. He lived at The Hollies,
Queen’s Cross until retiring to Kinver.

2 Walter Golding BARNSLEY (1880-1940) (Founder member elected 22.5.1922; resigned
4.10.1926.) Director of the family firm John Barnsley & Sons, Lifting tackle manufacturers of
Cradley Road, Netherton, also specialist iron and brass founders, pulley block and chain
manufacturers. He was born and raised in Netherton, attended King Edward High School,
Birmingham and graduated in engineering at London University, but then worked his way up in
the company, starting as a clerk. He lived in Netherton, then latterly at Norton and Iverley,
Stourbridge.

3 Albert Thomas BUTLER, FRIBA (1872-1952) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922; resigned
6.4.1936 because of pressure of work.) Celebrated Architect. Educated at Halesowen Grammar
School, he was articled to Horton & Scott of Wednesbury in 1887. Later he was assistant to
Henry Hill McConnal of Walsall. He began independent practice in 1893 at Cradley Heath and
became probably the first true Architect in the Black Country. He developed a fine range of work
in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ Style, including the Cradley Baptist chapel, Blackheath Congregational
church, and numerous shops, offices and houses, but the finest was the Cradley Heath Workers’
Institute (1911-12), rebuilt in 2008 on the Black Country Living Museum site. In 1911 he moved
to 31 Priory Street, Dudley - offices he designed himself - where he practised until his death. He
was responsible for rebuilding much of the Guest Hospital (from 1926), the shops and offices of
New Street, Dudley (from 1927), and the new Technical College (1933). He is also noted for his
inter-war ‘Tudor revival’ and ‘Neo-Georgian’ pubs for Wolverhampton & Dudley Brewery
including the Court House, New Street; the Hen and Chickens, High Street; and the Station Hotel,