Page 7 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

6 Ernest DAVIES (1876-1955) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922; resigned
6.7.1925.) Auctioneer and Valuer, Certificated Bailiff, and Land, House and
Estate Agent, practising in his own name from 1901 at various addresses in
Wolverhampton Street, High Street and Castle Street, and later at Holloway
Chambers, Priory Street, Dudley. For most of the 1920s he practised in
partnership with Dan Willetts, surveyor and estate agent of Kingswinford.
He retired only months before his death aged 78. Remarkably from 1912
to 1920 he was also Manager and Secretary of Dudley Hippodrome. For
many years he was a well-known singer in amateur operatic companies and
with professional touring companies. A prominent freemason, in 1948 he was appointed Past
Grand Standard Bearer of the United Grand Kingdom Lodge.

7 Andrew Martin FAIRBAIRN, JP MA (Oxon) (1870-1956) (Founder member,
elected 22.5.1922; membership terminated 8.4.1929.) Solicitor, Notary
Public and Official Receiver in Bankruptcy for Dudley and District; partner
in Hooper & Fairbairn of 1 Priory Street, Dudley from 1899 until 1950 and
of Hooper, Tanfield and Fairbairn of 26 Corporation Street, Birmingham
until it was dissolved in 1914. Dudley magistrate from c.1924 to 1938.
Formerly President of the Dudley and District Liberal Club. Member of
Dudley Golf Club and Captain 1908-09. Born in Bathgate, West Lothian,
the son of an Evangelical Union minister and eminent theological scholar
of the same name. The family moved to Oxford where his father became first Principal of
Mansfield College. Lived at Hagley from 1903 but from the mid-1930s had a home at Bexhill-
on-Sea, East Sussex.

8 Alexander John FIFE (1863-1950) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922; membership terminated
19.3.1928.) Postmaster, Dudley Post Office, Wolverhampton Street from 1918 until his
retirement in 1925 after 50 years with the postal service … probably the postmaster with the
longest established service in Great Britain. He was born in Inverness and joined the postal
service there as a ‘learner’ at the age of 14. He rose to be Assistant Superintendent in Inverness
before being appointed Postmaster at Kirkwall in 1894. The whole postal and telegraphic service
of the Orkney Islands was under his direction and greatly expanded during his period there. ‘Mr
Fife took a keen interest in electrical science, and kept himself abreast of new discoveries
bearing on it and inventions resulting from them, and many people in Kirkwall will remember
the instructive lecture he gave on wireless telegraphy.’ In 1903 he was promoted to be
postmaster at Fleetwood, Lancashire, and in 1913 was appointed postmaster of Newton Abbot,
Devon where he ‘rendered splendid service for the cause of education’ and also took a keen
interest in the Torquay Debating Society. From Newton Abbot he came to Dudley where his
home was at Burnt Tree, but after retiring he moved to Old Hill and then to Henley-on-Thames.
He was President of Dudley Literary Society.

9 James GOUGH, Capt., JP (1890-1956) (Founder member, elected 22.5.1922; club Secretary until
15.2.1926; President 1926-27; resigned 29.2.1932 owing to pressure of
business.) Chartered Accountant. He joined his father (Thomas Henry
Gough) as a partner in Gough & Wright, Chartered Accountants of 267
Castle Street Dudley in about 1919. They also practised in West Bromwich
as Gough, Wright, Smith & Co, and in Brierley Hill as Gough, Son & Clare.
James also held the post of House Governor and Secretary of Dudley Guest
Hospital from 1921 until 1927, after which he continued as a Trustee. He
was a Dudley magistrate (1938-50) and Treasurer of Dudley Unionist
Association (1935-46). He was educated at Wolverley Grammar School,
Kidderminster, then served his articles with Birmingham chartered accountants Howard Smith,