New Clerk - Appointment of Officer With Law Degree

The Finance Committee reported that after considering 69 applications and interviewing eight of the candidates for the position of Clerk to the Council they had unanimously resolved to appoint Mr. T. L. Watts, L.L.B., as Clerk and Chief Executive Officer at a salary of £550 per annum, rising in four years to £650.

It was understood that Mr. Watts would also be appointed Clerk of the Higham Ferrers and Rushden Water Board at a salary of £1 per annum.

Mr. Watts was Deputy Clerk of the Beddington and Wallington (Surrey) Urban Council from 1930 to 1937, and has been Deputy Town Clerk of the borough of Beddington and Wallington since the incorporation of the district in 1937. He is aged 38, and married; he obtained his law degree with London University honours.

The present Clerk, Mr. W. L. Beetenson, retires on March 31st, and Mr. Watts will succeed him on April 1st.

Coun. Allebone said the committee felt that the appointment was a good one. Mr. Watts appeared to have a very good knowledge of Local Government work, and they felt that he would prove a valuable Clerk.

The report was adopted without further comment.

From Progressive District - Record of Rushden’s New Council Clerk

Mr. Thomas Leightley Watts, newly appointed as Clerk to the Rushden Urban Council, began his career in Local Government under the City of Stoke-on-Trent Corporation, Stoke being his native place. His next appointments were with the Urban Councils of Hornsea (E. Yorks.), Hornsforth (W. Yorks) and Bebington and Bromborough (Cheshire).

From 1930 to 1937 he was Deputy Clerk to the Beddington and Wallington Urban Council. The district obtained borough status in 1937, and from that time Mr. Watts has been Deputy Town Clerk, also serving during the war as Billeting and Re-housing Officer.

Beddington and Wallington is a chiefly residential area about ten miles due south of London, and has grown rapidly in recent years. His experience there can hardly have failed to develop in Mr. Watts a truly progressive outlook.

Mr. Watts is a Bachelor of Laws (external) with London University honours, and is also a Legal Associate Member of the Town Planning Institute. He has been a member of the South Metropolitan Whitley Council and its executive committee from its inception, and his service to the National Association of Local Government Officers has included educational work for the Metropolitan District Committee and membership of the Local Government Reconstruction Committee.

Thirty-eight years of age, Mr. Watts is married and has two children – boys aged five and three. He is a keen tennis player, has played Association football for Hornsea Town and other clubs, and remains devoted to football as an enthusiastic spectator. He is musical, too, and sings in a Church of England choir at Wallington.

Council Losing Valued Officer
Mr. A. Maclean Obtains Clerkship in North - Work for Savings

Rushden Urban Council, whose Clerk will retire at the end of March, is also to lose its Accountant and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Albert Maclean, who has been appointed to the clerkship of an urban council in the North of England.

The loss is greatly to be regretted for Mr. Maclean, who came to Rushden in February, 1934, from the borough of Swinton and Pendlebury, Lancs., has been an exceptionally able officer and has distinguished himself in work of public importance outside his Council duties.

His organising ability came to notice when he acted as hon. Secretary for the local celebrations of the Royal Silver Jubilee, and again when he organized the Coronation rejoicings. The outbreak of the present war gave him heavy tasks in connection with the billeting of thousands of evacuees, and his energy, courtesy and attention to detail made a great impression.

Before the close of 1939 Mr. Maclean became hon. Secretary to the rushed, Higham Ferrers and Raunds National Savings committee. The work grew beyond all expectations, but Mr. Maclean handled it with great ability and became recognised as one of the most enterprising secretaries in the Midlands. Largely through his efforts the area established a reputation for its small savings groups, startled the Region with its total of £406,000 in the War Weapons Week of 1941, and added more than £200,000 in the Warship Week of 1942. Before his retirement from this work last year the area had saved more than 1½ million pounds.

Financial Adviser

For a time Mr. Maclean was acting-secretary of the Rushden Y.M.C.A. Several local authorities in the county have sought his help in financial matters.

A native of Manchester, Mr. Maclean gained early experience on the staff of the Barton-upon-Irwell rural district Council Board of Guardians and Assessment Committee, and with the Urmston and Flixton Joint Drainage Committee. At Swinton and Pendlebury he held the position of Deputy Accountant.

Mr. Maclean’s wife has earned the thanks of the Rushden area for her work in organising the supply of gifts to H.M.S. Quorn, the destroyer adopted by the area after last year’s Warship Week. She has handled this pleasant task very happily indeed, and the friendship between the ship’s company and the district has gone far beyond mere formality.

Mr. Maclean will conclude his duties at Rushden in the third week of February and take up his new post at the end of the month.