Page 63 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

because by age 22 he was already Works Manager. Although the business was sold in 1936 to
release funds to re-equip the Dudley premises for aircraft component construction he stayed on
as Managing Director for 10 years. As Helliwell’s Aircraft the firm won contracts with Hawker,
A V Roe and Armstrong-Whitworth to make windscreens and cabin-tops for their aircraft, but
soon outgrew the Dudley factories, so they set up large workshops at Walsall airport near
Aldridge. Geoffrey left the Rotary club at this time. The Dudley works continued to produce
aircraft fuel tanks, while at Walsall Airport they made windscreens, windows, panels, nacelle
covers, bulkhead frames, door ladders, doors and gunners’ seats for a variety of aircraft. During
the Second World War the firm made parts for Wellington bombers, repaired fighter planes, and
assembled trainers and bombers imported from the USA. After the War the Walsall works also
made Swallow motorcycles and sidecars and Doretti sports cars. After retiring from Helliwells
in 1946 he acquired and became MD of two Wolverhampton concectionery firms, John Holmes
Confections Ltd and R H Robshaw Ltd. He was a member of Tettenhall Urban Council from 1950.
Born in Dudley and educated at Dudley Grammar School, Geoffrey started as a clerk for a
local export merchant. In October 1916, a few days before his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the
army but as a child he had suffered infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis) which had caused deformity
and shortening of his legs. He was therefore posted to the ‘Labour Corps’ (The Home Service
Employment Company) to assist with recruiting around Worcestershire. He lived in Sedgley until
1936 and then in Wolverhampton.

191 Hugh Anyon SHERRATT (1892-1961) (Inducted 25.5.1936; resigned 24.1.1938; rejoined in 1951
[member #320].) Wireless Engineer and Dealer of New Street, Dudley. His father Thomas Hulme
Sherratt was an oil and gas lamp manufacturer and dealer. Around 1926 Anyon took over the
business and it became ‘H Anyon Sherratt, The Old Established Lamp Shop’, but almost
immediately he switched to Wireless Accessories Makers and Dealers. The business expanded
rapidly so he opened a second shop in Hall Street, which soon moved to New Street. However
in addition to ‘wireless’ he advertised as ‘Cycle Agents’ and ‘Electrical Light Engineers & Fitters’
in the 1930s. The firm gradually changed to become retailers of a wide range of domestic
electrical goods so from 1946 it became Sherratts (Electrical) Limited which survived until 1997.
Anyon did not join the family firm straight from school: he stayed on as a ‘pupil teacher’ until
at least the age of 18. During the Great War he served in the Worcestershire and then the
Gloucestershire Regiment. Curiously, from the late 1930s, in addition to his electrical business
he became the licensee of the Victoria Hotel, Cradley Heath.

192 H L JONES (Inducted 29.6.1936; resigned 11.10.1948 because transferred business away from
the club’s territory.) Believed to be Harold Leslie JONES (1900-1982), Pharmacist, whose home
was in Oldbury. Throughout his period of membership he was known only as H L Jones, did not
live in Dudley, and his occupation was stated only as ‘Major classification no.11’. The
Membership Committee approved an application from ‘M’ Jones of Taylors’ Chemist, Market
Place but a few days earlier ‘Harold’ Jones of Oldbury had been introduced to the club as a guest
of Syd Rowley, presumably the same person. During his period as a member H L Jones brought
two guests from Oldbury. which seems to confirm his connection with that town. In the 1960s
Harold L Jones was proprietor of C H White Ltd, dispensing pharmacists in Oldbury.

193 George Frederick WEBB (1887-1975) (Inducted 31.8.36; made a Senior Active Member in 1952;
left 1967.) Architect; partner in Webb & Gray, architects and surveyors, of High Street Dudley
and High Street, Stourbridge. (The offices later moved to Tixall House, St James’s Road, Dudley
and Hagley Road, Stourbridge.) He started practising architecture on his own account from his
parents’ home in Wordsley but joined David Gray in partnership in 1922. His firm designed
cinemas at Kidderminster, Cradley Heath and Stourbridge and a very early one, the Kinema
Theatre in Kinver. Other early projects included renovations at Pensnett and Wordsley parish
churches, the ‘Oxbridge’ style extensions to the King Edward VI College in Stourbridge, and the