Page 97 - WHO'S WHO OF DUDLEY ROTARY

Advisory Committee, and on the board of governors of several schools. He was a keen
yachtsman and a Freemason. He lived at Wall Heath until 1948, then at Amblecote House to
1962, and latterly at Enville.

304 Henry (‘Harry’) William Christian EISEL (1907-1999) (Inducted 11.4.1949; resigned during
1953/54 because of difficulty of making attendance.) Education
Administration (Local). Chief Education Officer of Dudley County Borough
from June 1948 until retiring in 1972 (when he was succeeded by Frank
Turley, club member #371). He grew up in Bishop Auckland, County
Durham, the son of a German builder and contractor who had come to
the town at the age of 21. Harry was born in Duisburg, Germany so he
too had German nationality at birth. He was educated at Bishop Auckland
Grammar School and at Bede (teacher training) College and Durham
University 1925-29. He gained BA degrees in history, Latin, English and
education in 1929; an MA degree in education 1932; and MLitt also in education in 1935. He
taught at schools at Winlaton (Gateshead) and Spennymoor, County Durham before being
appointed Assistant Director of Education at Stockton-on-Tees in July 1939. Within weeks, war
with Germany was declared and Harry, still being a German national, was liable to be interned
but in November 1939 he was formally exempted and allowed to continue his work. Remarkably
in 1941 he joined the British Army, for the first year in the Pioneer Corps and then in the Army
Educational Corps, finishing the War with the rank of Major. It was not until 1947, by which time
he was Borough Education Officer of Bromley, Kent, that he became a naturalized British citizen.
(He married a British girl in 1938, so she took German nationality but was re-admitted to British
nationality in 1940.) From his teens up to his 30s Harry was a noted sportsman, playing hockey
for his college and university, the Bishop Auckland club and 11 seasons for Durham county (the
last 3 as captain), and playing cricket for Bishop Auckland.

305 Percival Gerald (‘Gerry’) HINGLEY (1896-1971) (inducted 5.9.1949; left early 1965.) Men’s
Outfitters - Distributing. Managing Director of the long-established firm of
Appleton & Co. Ltd, clothing wholesalers of Portersfield, Dudley and
originally clothing manufacturers in nearby Porter Street. His father was a
draper at Kates Hill, Dudley and it is probable that Percy started in that
business. As a teenager he was sent as a boarding student to Tettenhall
College, Wolverhampton, and then to the Royal Military College at
Sandhurst in 1915 as a cadet. Later that year he joined the East Lancashire
Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. He saw action with the Machine Gun
Corps and was promoted to Lieutenant. From 1918 until the end of 1919
he served in Russia with the British forces fighting the Bolsheviks. He left the Regular Army and
joined the clothing business but remained on the Reserve of Officers until 1927. In the 1930s
he was also Chairman of Fellows’ Garages Ltd, a short-lived motor repair business in Cradley
Heath connected with his wife’s family. During the last War he owned a 1939 Rolls Royce Wraith
limousine and then a 1940 Bentley Corniche built for display at the New York World’s Fair. After
the War he moved home from Stourbridge to Kidderminster, then finally retired to Barnt Green,
south Birmingham. He played a leading part in establishing Enville Golf Club and golf course in
1935, was vice President for 30 years, then President until 1967. He was a prominent freemason,
becoming Provincial Warden in the Worcestershire Province, and was father-in-law of Alan
Foulkes, Club member #374.