Page 64 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

modernistic Liberal Club in New Street, Dudley. He also designed Dudley police station and fire
station and the Kingfisher Club, Wall Heath. He retired in 1966 but continued as a consultant to
the new firm of Webb & Gray & Partners. A talented artist and cartoonist, he had watercolours
exhibited at the Royal Academy. His home was in Stourbridge and latterly at Astwood Bank,
Redditch.

194 Richard EMMS (1889-1939) (Inducted 31.8.36; membership terminated 24.1.1938.) Scrap
Dealer. Principal of the family business Isaac Emms & Son, scrap iron merchants of Simms Lane,
Netherton, which he set up before the age of 21 with 7s.6d capital and the support of his father.
In 1935, following in the footsteps of his father who was a colliery manager at Grazebrook’s
Netherton Old Pit, he bought a coal mine at Warrens Hall, Netherton. After three years this
became worked out so he took over the Cawney Bank Colliery near Kate’s Hill. Soon afterwards,
this is where he was fatally injured in a tragic accident, by a cable that broke in the course of
drainage operations. He had married for a second time only two months before his death, his
first wife having also died at a young age. He had been a Conservative member of Dudley Town
Council for four years and a member of other public bodies including the Upper Stour Valley
Main Sewerage Board. After his death the scrap metal business continued for a further 55 years
under the direction of his son Richard. Another son Theodore founded the well-known firm of
steel stockholders Theodore Emms Limited and joined the Rotary club in 1960 (member #372).

195 Alexander (‘Alex’) WATSON (1891-1972) (Inducted 21.9.1936; President
1944-45; left 21.6.1965.) Enamelling Plant Manufacturer. Managing
Director of F J Ballard & Co., of Dudley Road, Tividale, manufacturers of a
wide range of industrial ovens. (Francis Ballard himself was a member of
the club from 1924, member #94.) Alex was born in Tipton but as a
teenager moved to Halesowen with his widowed mother. He started work
as a draughtsman in a firm of mechanical engineers and continued to be
closely involved in the design of products after joining Ballards some time
before 1928. He obtained several patents as the inventor of improved
drying ovens and conveyor systems. He was President of Dudley Chamber of Commerce 1939-
41 and a member of Dudley Town Council from 1943 to 1945. He lived in Oakham Road, Dudley
until retiring to West Hagley about the time he left the Rotary Club. His sons Keith and Tony
each became members of the Club, nos. #357 and #471 respectively.

196 Dr Cyril Cassan MESSITER (1884-1951) (Founder member who left in 1928 but re-elected
16.10.1936; resigned 28.11.1938.) Re-joined as ‘Surgeon’ with a practice in Priory Road, Dudley.
(See entry #33 for more details.)

197 Howard SKIDMORE (1894-1953) (Inducted 21.12.36; resigned 8.2.1944.) Chairman and
managing director of Clydesdale Stamping Co., Ltd of the Atlas Works,
Marriott Road, Netherton and a founder-director of its parent company
Barton & Sons (1935) Ltd. Clydesdale produced mostly light drop forgings
and presswork (including army helmets during the Second World War). He
grew up in Russell Street Dudley. On leaving school he became an
accountant’s clerk but within 4 years the First World War had started. He
joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, seeing action in France from
November 1916 and suffering a shrapnel wound to his left arm in November
1918. He was President of the Dudley Chamber of Commerce 1945-48 and
a director of the Dudley & District Benefit Building Society in the same period. From 1948 he
was first Chairman of the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Hospital Group established under the
new National Health Service. He lived in Stourbridge Road, Holly Hall until 1946, and then at
Hampton Lodge, Stourton near Kinver where he had a small dairy and poultry holding.