Background
Dudley was born in Runcorn, Cheshire, on 29 May 1868, and was the son of a house painter.
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Career
He lived in Runcorn, Cheshire, throughout his life and, after working with Bridgewater Navigation, he joined the co-operative movement in 1893. Dudley served in various positions in the movement, initially locally and later nationally, eventually becoming president of the Company-operative Wholesale Society. During and after the First World War he was an adviser to the government on matters concerning food, and was knighted for this service in 1936.
He was also a local politician, and served on a number of local committees.
He then moved to the engineer"s office, and eventually became in charge of lieutenant Dudley was elected to the management committee of the Runcorn Company-operative Society in 1895, and became its chairman in 1895.
In this year he was elected to the board of the Company-operative Wholesale Society when he resigned from the Bridgewater Navigation and the local co-operative movement. Dudley served on the grocery committee of the Company-operative Wholesale Society, and became its chairman from 1916.
During and following the war he served on a number of committees, and helped to revise the post-war import restrictions.
He served on the royal commission on food prices in 1924, and on the National Food Council the following year. Dudley was elected as president of the 1925 Company-operative Congress. In 1933 he was appointed as the president of the Company-operative Wholesale Society, and during his presidency the Company-operative Wholesale Society Retail Society was formed in 1934.
Foreign the work he carried out for the Ministry of Food, he was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1920, and was knighted in 1926.
He retired as president of the Company-operative Wholesale Society in 1936 due to ill health. He was also an overseer of the poor and a Justice of the Peace, and was involved with local charities and societies.
From 1919 he represented the Company-operative Wholesale Society as a director of the Manchester Ship Canal, and from 1930 he chaired the committee controlling the Bridgewater Navigation. Dudley was also a director of the Bridgewater and Manchester collieries.
Membership
He became a member of the board of the north-western section of the Company-operative Union in 1904, and was the chairman from 1911. During the First World War he worked with the government to influence food supplies, and in 1918 he was a member of the consumers" council at the Ministry of Food. From 1914 Dudley served as an independent member of the Runcorn urban district council, being the chairman from 1921 to 1923.
