Charles Fenton

The British Belting Company which he set up to manufacture his invention moved to Cleckheaton – where Mr Charles Fenton was born - and by 1914 was producing 40,000 feet of transmission linings a week for Henry Ford’s famous car, the model T.

Mr Fenton worked for the BBA group all his working life, as managing director between 1970-1985 and chairman from 1985-1989.

With numerous overseas subsidiaries, yet retaining its headquarters at the Royds in Cleckheaton, the group was the largest Yorkshire-based company with around 26,000 employees by the time he retired.

After he retired, he remained chairman of the BBA Retired Employees’ Association.

Mr Fenton, his sister Peggy and brothers John and Andrew, all of whom he outlived, were the children of Sir William and Lady Fenton.

He went to Woodhall and Uppingham schools, and he firmly believed that he later became a successful management man because when he was 13 he suffered from osteomyelitis and was barred from playing games. So instead of being out on the playing fields, where he wanted to be, he had to watch the others.

It taught him to be a perceptive observer, and the experience made him determined to fight his battles elsewhere.

He graduated from Leeds University with a diploma in Textile Industries, and later would be appointed a Fellow of the Textile Institute, and a Companion of the Institute of Management.

He maintained his links with Leeds University, and was on the Council of Devonshire Hall - a room there is named after him – up until his death.

In June 1963 he married Shirley Windsor, the couple having met just six months earlier at a party in Harrogate.

During his business career, in addition to his roles with BBA, Mr Fenton served as chairman of British Mohair Holdings, and was a director of Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust.

He had been a council member of The City and Guilds of London Institute who conferred an honorary fellowship on him in 1994 in recognition of his outstanding professional contribution to industry and commerce.

He was a member of the recently-formed (2001) Guild of Educators.

An active committee member, chairman or president, Mr Fenton’s sense of humour and quick wit could always smooth ruffled feathers.

He had a knack of encouraging meetings to reach his own preferred conclusion, and if a discussion began to meander, he could be relied upon to bring it back on course with a humorous but down-to-earth suggestion.

Outside his business interests, Mr Fenton was actively involved in West Riding life. He was trustee of West Riding Cheshire homes and the AM Fenton Trust; president of the Dewsbury & District League of Friendship for Disabled Persons; chairman of Whitcliffe Mount Scholarship Trust, and for 50 years was a governor of Hipperholme Grammar School (remaining governor emeritus).

He served as a magistrate on the Dewsbury Bench for 33 years, taking a one year leave from the bench in 1981 to fullfill his duties as High Sheriff of West Yorkshire.

He was a compassionate man who believed that work on the Bench coupled with his industrial experience gave him a greater understanding of people’s behaviour.

He was past chairman of the National Examining Board for Supervisory Management, and the Manpower Services Commission.

Tangier was one of his favourite holiday spots, and on one occasion, while visiting the local Cheshire home he found the children there hot and with nowhere to cool off. On his return to the UK, he arranged for a swimming pool to be built, and opened it on a later visit to Morocco.

A keen fisherman, he was held in high regard as chairman of the Yorkshire Fly Fishers, of which he was a director for over 50 years.

He was a vice president of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, a Yorkshire Taverner and a founder member of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Charitable Youth Trust which started life by acquiring a lease on the old county ground at Bradford park Avenue.

For more than 30 years he had been president of Cleckheaton Sports Club, with its rugby, bowls and cricket sections, and took especial delight in its ability to field seven junior cricket teams. He remained actively connected with the sports club as a trustee. He was also president of the Craven Gentlemen Cricket Club and Spen Valley Billiards Club.

In 1982 he was made an OBE for his srvices to the community.

Mr Fenton is survived by his son Nigel. His wife, Shirley and daughter, Charlotte, both pre-deceased him.