Page 73 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

He was born George Maclaren Arnold in Cheltenham. Within a few years he was known as
Richard George McLaren Arnold and living with his mother, owner of a boarding house, in
Southsea, Hampshire. His mother remarried so at the age of 16 he changed his name by deed
poll from Arnold to his step-father’s name of Lane. By this time they were living in Coventry
where he appears to have started work with Rover cars. In 1922, at the age of 20, he joined the
Indian Imperial Police in Bihar state, soon becoming an Assistant Superintendent and eventually
a Divisional Superintendent, and remained there before returning to England in 1936. He then
attended Air Raid Precautions Police training in Glasgow before being appointed ARP Officer for
the industrial Teesside district of the North Riding of Yorkshire in September 1938. Months later
he was posted to Dudley. After the War he moved to New York and appears to have become a
manufacturer’s agent. He became a naturalised citizen of the USA in 1955 but despite that died
in Surrey in 1977.

226 Albert (‘Bert’) Edward Victor SHERWOOD, JP (1897-1957) (Inducted
10.7.1939; died 19.6.1957 in the last few days of his year as club President
1956-57.) Coroner. Solicitor and partner in the firm of Slater & Camm,
Wolverhampton Street, Dudley, from 1931, Deputy Coroner for Dudley
from 1936 and appointed Coroner in 1939. He was for a time clerk to the
justices at Dudley and then appointed a borough Magistrate in 1948. He
was Secretary of the Dudley Dispensary from 1935, Honorary Secretary of
the district branch of the NSPCC, chairman of Tipton Conservative Club and
a prominent freemason in the Staffordshire Province.
He grew up in Tipton, the son of a publican, but attended Dudley Grammar School. On leaving
school in 1915 he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery and served in Palestine for 2½ years. When
he returned he intended to go into medicine but decided instead to take up the law and was
articled to a Tipton solicitor. He qualified as a solicitor in 1922. His home was in Sedgley Road
West, Woodsetton from the 1930s until 1952, and then in St James’s Road. His last public
appearance was two months before his death when he left his sick bed to be presented to the
Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on their Royal visit to Dudley.

227 Alfred Edgar THOMAS (1890-1959) (Elected 26.6.1939 as an Additional Active Member -
additional to A E V Sherwood, the Coroner. In 1943 he became a full active
member in the classification ‘Solicitor’. Left 19.7.1954.) Solicitor, partner
in Slater & Camm and Deputy Coroner for Dudley, 1939-1950. He suffered
serious disability from 1948 and had great difficulty in attending. In
November 1953 it was said that in view of his particular condition he should
not be asked to resign: ‘every consideration should be given to easing his
mental strain’. Rtn Sherwood had previously paid Thomas’s subscription.
‘It was extremely unlikely that Rtn Thomas would ever visit the club again.’
He was born at Burnt Tree, Tipton, the son of a steel rolling mill worker, but
grew up in the Parkfield area of Wolverhampton. He started work as a solicitor’s clerk. His home
was in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton until the late 1930s, and then in High Street, Sedgley.

228 Leonard (‘Len’) Richard CRUMP (1896-1964) (Elected 25.9.1939; in April
1955 invited to be a Senior Active member; President 1959-60; died
12.11.1964 whilst still a member.) Director of the family firm A J Crump
& Sons, building contractors, founded by his father. His classification was
General Contracting until 1949 when it was changed to Building
Contracting and in 1950 to Building Construction. The firm specialised in
construction of public and community buildings: schools, cinemas and
theatres, swimming baths, etc. He started work as a clerk in his father’s
business on leaving the Sir Gilbert Claughton School at the age of 14. In