How UD&L started - in Bill’s own words:
The text pasted below is from his “Reminiscences” about his role in WW1/The Great War of 1914-1918 and explains briefly and (I gather) characteristically modestly and undramatically, how it was that after his wartime experiences in the Royal Flying Corps, he came to find himself in Intellectual Property, training with Mewburn Ellis, getting qualified, and then buying (presumably using some inherited wealth, but he never mentions that) himself into the GGM Hardingham (London) practice at Clun House, Surrey Street, and then a few years later adding the Leeds practice of Fairburn Hart to his growing firm. The pasted text below is from the InDesign page of his 1978 “Reminiscences” compiled and published in Quark Xpress by my daughter Helen Archer 21 years later (with some editorial input from me). The coloured formatting lines arise from taking a screen grab from the InDesign page in question.
Below is Bill Dykes (WUD)’s family tree showing the people mentioned above. His father is William Alston Dykes who is identified as ‘Junior’ because there is another ‘William Alston Dykes’ (WUD’s grandfather). WUD’s father is a regular officer in the 26th Battalion of the Cameronians, and his grandfather is the “Scottish Local Administrator and Lawyer” mentioned above. The “Lieutenant-Colonelß killed at Le Cateau” is Alfred McNair Dykes, who is to be found near the foot of this tree. WUD’s “cousin Agnes” is Agnes AU McCall (the “U” standing for ‘Urquhart’). Bill’s account of his experiences as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C) are recorded in his “Reminiscences” which my daughter Helen Archer and I published in 1999. Copies of that publication printed then have run out and so I am (commencing 2.9.14) starting to transcribe it for re-publication online here - see WUD’s Reminiscences.
