Building firm that was at 113 London Road.
Mr. Stanley Dale
DEATH OF BUILDER OF WILSON HOSPITAL
To the deep regret of all old Mitcham folk, Mr. Stanley Peter Dale, head of the well-known building firm, Stanley Dale and Sons, Ltd., of London Road, and one of the most popular personalities of the borough, died on Friday. He was 72.
Mr. Dale was a native of Mitcham and spent all his life here. The work of which he was most proud as a builder was Wilson Hospital. The original building, opened in 1928 by the Princess Royal, was entirely his achievement. It has since been greatly enlarged.
The firm has erected many other notable buildings in Mitcham and elsewhere, including local factories, such as Messrs. Renshaw and Co.’s premises in Lock’s Lane. The business will be carried on by his elder son, Mr. Cecil Dale, recently demobilised from the Royal Air Force, in which he was a sergeant, and by Mrs. I. A. Dorey, his younger daughter, who has been her father’s chief assistant through the war years. Both are first-class business folk.
Mr. Stanley Dale was born in the Fountain Inn, in Western Road, of which his father, the late Mr. Peter Dale, was the freeholder. He was a notable Mitcham character, a great sportsman who lived to be 85. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Dale were held in the greatest esteem by all the Village of Mitcham. All his sons have gained an equal esteem as Mitcham business men.
Two of them, Messrs. Harold and Roy Dale, were hosts of the Gardeners’ Arms and of the Swan Inn, within a stone’s throw of Mr. Stanley Dale’s home and business headquarters, until a little over twelve months ago, when they retired. The Dale family have been established in Mitcham for well over a century.
A brother of Mr. Peter Dale was manager of the old flour mills on the river Wandle, near “Watermeads,” which have long since ceased to exist. Mr. George Dale, who established the oldest newsagency on the Fair Green, subsequently carried on by the late Mr. Alfred Dale, was a parish councillor. Many other members of the family had businesses in various parts of the borough.
A GOOD SPORTSMAN
Mr. Stanley Dale started his builder’s business over 40 years ago; but business did not absorb all his interest and energy. He was keenly interested in all the social activities of his birthplace, particularly in sport, as most native Mitcham folk are. He was a member of the Indoor Bowling Club, a regular supporter of Mitcham and Tooting Football Club, a member of Mitcham Cricket Club. Nothing pleased him more in later life than to stand about the Cricket Green on Saturday afternoons watching the game with a connoisseur’s eye, and recalling the happy days that are no more. He was a Rotarian and a Freemason, with membership of two Masonic lodges, Mitcham and St. Mary’s, Balham.
LOVED FRANCE
Another of his interests, and an unusual one, was in Paris. He loved that beautiful city and France generally. Three or four times every year he went to the French capital to visit friends he made in Mitcham.
“His closest and best friends were in Paris and other parts of France,” Mrs. Dorey told “The Advertiser.” “He had about thirty there. On the morning of his death I read to him a letter from one of them. Though he had visited France so often, he could speak hardly a word of French. Some of his French friends were no more conversant with English, yet they seemed to understand one another well. I and my brother often accompanied him to those dearly-prized meetings.”
Mr. Stanley Dale was blessed with a lovable personality. His quiet, intimate style of conversation, his integrity, his generosity and his humorous appreciation of life generally endeared him to all with whom he came into contact. As a business man he established a reputation that will long endure. He was very proud of that. “If he had been harder-headed and harder-hearted,” said Sir Isaac Wilson on one occasion, “he would have been a much wealthier man, but Stanley was not born with that nature.” Sir Isaac Wilson and Mr. Dale were great friends and had many business relations with each other.
Mr. Dale’s serious illness began in November. He was in King’s College Hospital for three weeks. Since then he had been confined to his bed at home. Throughout Christmas time Mrs. Dale herself was in Wilson Hospital.
There are two sons and two daughters—Mrs. McLeod, wife of P.C. McLeod, formerly of Mitcham, Mrs. Dorey, Messrs. Cecil and Basil Dale.
The funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon. The first part of the service was held in Mitcham Parish Church, and the interment was in London Road Cemetery. The Vicars of Mitcham and St. Mark’s Church conducted the service, which was largely attended. Among the floral tributes were wreaths from Mitcham Rotary Club, both Masonic lodges, the staff of Messrs. Stanley Dale and Sons, Ltd., and a number of local organisations.
Mr. Donald E. Drewett, Upper Green, Mitcham, carried out the arrangements.
