Page 65 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

198 Thomas (‘Tom’) Benjamin DAY (1902-1969) (Inducted 15.3.1937; made a Senior Active Member
in early 1953, so allowing W F Holden to join; member until shortly before his death in 1969.)
Classification ‘Garage Service Station’. He was joint owner of Day & Mansell Ltd, automobile
engineers and car dealers, founded in 1935 when he teamed up with Roland J Mansell of Tipton.
The firm had the ‘National Garage’ workshops and showroom in Hall Street (Waddams Pool),
Dudley. It was taken over by the P J Evans group in 1967. Tom Day was brought up at Six Ashes
near Bridgnorth, the son of a farm bailiff, and as a youngster was known as Benjamin.

199 Solomon (‘Sol’) WRIGHT (1889-1964) (Inducted 10.5.1937; membership terminated 10.2.1942.)
Insurance. Manager of the Dudley branch of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Ltd,
Wolverhampton Street, from April 1932, and also agent for the Midland Mutual Plate Glass
Assurance Co., the Edinburgh Assurance Co., and the National Insurance Co. of Great Britain. He
became manager on the retirement of Harry Barney (club member #67), having previously been
branch ‘Inspector’. He was brought up in the Kate’s Hill area, son of a coal miner and younger
brother of William Wright who became a notable Dudley solicitor. He served in the
Worcestershire Regiment towards the end of the First World War. For many years he was closely
associated with Dixon’s Green Wesleyan Church. He played for Dudley Cricket Club second
eleven before and after his war service and later was club secretary.

200 William Ernest HARPER (1885-1955) (Inducted 10.5.1937; membership terminated 8.2.1944.)
Ironfounder. He was a Director of the Dudley Foundry Company Limited, of Moor Lane Foundry,
Brierley Hill. Born at Kates Hill, Dudley, as a teenager he was sent as a boarder to Bourne College,
Quinton, a minor public school for sons of Primitive Methodists. By his mid-20s he was already
a director of a motor garage, director of a tin stamping company, and Secretary of a roller skating
rink! In 1912, together with the vicar of Dudley, the Director of Education, the Medical Officer
of Health and several other prominent citizens, he was fined for organising unlawful roulette at
a four day church fund-raising event. In 1933 he was again fined for allowing a steam waggon
to emit sparks and hot ashes as it drove through Fenny Stratford. His firm had 41 previous
convictions. Also during the early 1930s he obtained several patents for foundry products:
improved curtain rods, metal flooring panels and flushing cisterns. He lived at Swinford Lodge,
Oldswinford before moving to Kinver in 1945 and retiring to Brighton about 1952.

201 Frederic William KENCHINGTON (1910-1968) (Inducted 10.5.1937; left early 1939.) Chartered
Surveyor and head of the Dudley office of Edwards, Son, Bigwood and
Mathews, the Birmingham-based auctioneers and valuers. He joined the
practice in his early 20s and was made a partner at the age of 28 in January
1939. He left the Rotary club soon afterwards and the firm’s Dudley office
in Priory Street closed a year later. He was born in Muswell Hill, North
London but his secondary education was as a boarder at Wycliffe College
near Gloucester. By the age of 20 he was in the West Midlands, playing
in the Leamington Rugby Football Club 1st XV. During the Second World
War he served with the Royal Air Force Reserve of Officers in the
Administrative and Special Duties Branch: he started as an Assistant Land Surveyor/ Pilot Officer
but was posted to Iceland as a Squadron Leader where he helped develop Reykjavik airfield and
naval base. After the war he became one of Birmingham’s leading chartered surveyors. During
the 1960s he was one of the seven members of the Dawley Development Corporation,
forerunner of Telford New Town Corporation, and also a Governor of his old school Wycliffe
College. His home for many years was at Clent.

202 Joseph Makepeace FORSTER (1879-1966) (Member 1922-27; rejoined 10.5.1937; made a Past
Service Member 14.10.1946; resigned 14.4.1947.) Principal of Dudley Training College. See #37
for a more detailed biography.