Description:This is an abridged biography from The Handsworth Magazine. The full biography is available as a download.
Councillor Alfred Lane, of Tudor House (Birchfield Road), Perry Barr, was born at Halesowen, Worcestershire in 1848.
From an early age Mr Lane has been connected with the baking trade, working his way up the successive steps of the ladder until now his opinions on trade questions are eagerly sought and carefully weighed by others of his calling. Some years ago when the premises he occupied became too circumscribed for the ever-increasing volume of his trade, he erected the handsome and imposing establishment familiar to most if not all of our readers as Tudor House. Whilst he has always been an ardent advocate of advancement in connection with the general purposes of his trade, he has shown it a worthy example in his own affairs for he early recognised the necessity of bakers acting in conformity with the spirit of modern legislation. Technical education has always found in him a warm friend and advocate and his strong common-sense and business-like qualities have been placed unreservedly at the disposal of every cause which he could advance. One of the most successful held at the Birmingham Technical School – a class devoted to the teaching of the science of baking to bakers’ assistants and masters’ servants – owes its existence to the initiative of Councillor Lane. In 1896 he drew up a scheme for technical instruction of the kind and submitted it to the Birmingham Master Bakers’ Association. Representations were made to the city authorities and the class mentioned was commenced in the October of that year with a membership of upwards of 70. For four years he has occupied the presidential chair of the Birmingham Master Bakers’ Association and for long he has worked hard in the interests both of this and the National Association.
He was for upwards of eleven years a representative of Handsworth upon the West Bromwich Board of Guardians and served during a portion of that time as Chairman of the Finance Committee; his grasp of detail and conscientious work making him a painstaking and capable chairman. He was for some years a member of the Handsworth Local Board and did much useful work in that capacity. Upon the formation of the Handsworth District Council and the division of the district for electoral purposes into wards, he was elected a member for Birchfield Ward after a contested election. As a District Councillor he is held in high esteem and deservedly so. His qualities as an administrator have been recognised by his colleagues and he holds several important positions, being Chairman of the District Sewerage Committee and a member of the General Purposes, Plans and Building, Free Library and Technical School Committees. As might be expected from a gentleman of Mr Lane’s intelligence and ability he is a very useful member of the Handsworth Free Library Committee. The good folk of Perry Barr certainly owe it to Mr Lane’s persistent agitation for a branch library in Birchfield Ward that they have at their disposal the well-appointed reading room and book lending department opened last year in the Institute, Birchfield Road