Page 95 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

299 Stephen Henry WALKEM, BComm ASAA (1910-1950) (Inducted c.26.7.1948; died 8.7.1950 aged
only 39, whilst still a member.) Secretary to the Dudley, Brierley Hill and District Gas Company
from 1947, becoming Divisional Accountant of the Wolverhampton Group of West Midland Gas
Board following nationalisation of the gas industry at the start of 1949. Previously he had been
Secretary of the Taunton & District Gas Company. He grew up in Woolwich, southeast London,
where his father worked in the naval dockyard, and as a teenager in Poole, Dorset, so it is natural
that during the last War he served in the Royal Navy, becoming Lieutenant Commander Pay
Master. He served mostly on shore bases but latterly on hospital ships in the Far East. He
remained in the Royal Naval Reserve until his untimely death. His home was in Oakham Road.

300 Percy Dale WADSWORTH, LLB (1906-1984) (Inducted 29.11.1948; died in
January 1984 whilst still a member.) Classification Municipal government
administration. Town Clerk of Dudley from July 1948 until retiring in March
1974. He was previously Town Clerk of Accrington and a member of the
Rotary Club there. Although born in Warrington he grew up in Rhyl and
studied law at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, passing the
Law Society’s final examinations in 1932. He served his articles at Colwyn
Bay and London. He was an assistant solicitor at Chester before becoming
Deputy Town Clerk of Accrington in 1935, then Town Clerk of Radcliffe,
south Lancashire in 1938. He returned to Accrington as Town Clerk from November 1943, where
he was also Solicitor-Clerk to the district gas and water board and Clerk to the local sewerage
board, to the Accrington School for Girls and the Victoria Hospital. In 1950, he and his fiancée
caused a medical scare in the Dudley district just two weeks before their wedding. They had
visited a sick friend in Glasgow who died of smallpox days later. After receiving emergency
vaccinations and showing no symptoms, they proceeded with the wedding as planned.

301 Winston Thomas HENN (1908-1971) (Inducted 6.12.1948; left June 1965.) Jewellery, Retailing.
He was Proprietor of Henns (Dudley) Limited, watch repairers and
jewellers of New Street, Dudley, successor to a family business established
first in Cradley Heath by his father John Wesley Henn. JW soon moved to
West Bromwich where Winston was born and grew up although he was
educated at Shebbear College, a highly regarded Methodist independent
boarding school near Torridge, Devon. Winston and his older brother John
William joined their father in the business from school. In 1935 the firm
set up in Dudley as John W Henn & Son but it was not until 1940 that
Winston took charge at Dudley as a jeweller and optician. In 1941 father
John and both sons incorporated as J W Henn & Sons Limited and also took over Betteridge’s,
another established firm of watchmakers and jewellers in New Street, Dudley. In 1948, two
years after their father’s retirement, Winston and his brother formed two separate companies
to carry on the business, with Winston as Managing Director of Henns (Dudley) Ltd and John
junior as MD of J W Henn & Co Ltd in West Bromwich. During the 1960s Winston opened
another shop in Bridgnorth.
Winston was well known for his motoring exploits, being a frequent competitor in Midland
and national rallies and twice taking part in the Monte Carlo Rally. Bad luck prevented him
reaching Monte Carlo on both occasions: in 1955, driving a baby Austin A30, he was involved in
an accident on the Alpine section and narrowly escaped going over the edge of the road; the
following year, in a Rover 90, he was well placed when his car was wrecked in a collision in a
French village. His rallying came to a halt in 1957 when he was knocked off a motor scooter
outside his shop by a heavy lorry and seriously injured his left leg. After that he had to drive an
automatic-transmission car on a disabled driver’s licence. Also in 1957 he was made a Freeman
of the City of London and Liveryman of the Clockmakers’ Guild, and was Chairman of the Dudley
Sea Scouts.