REMEMBER ‘MR BRISTOL CITY’ As Bristol City football fans wait to learn who their new manager might be many have been remembering Harry Dolman - whose birthday was the first week in August. He was born 123 years ago this week in Wiltshire. Rediscovered diaries penned by the inventive businessman form the basis of a fascinating book about his remarkable life. Harry Dolman OBE dedicated nearly 40 years of his life to the football club he loved, as director, chairman and president. His many contributions to the club included designing the stand named after him at his beloved Ashton Gate stadium, as well as introducing (after designing them himself) the ground’s first floodlights and entry turnstiles. Harry Dolman: The Millionaire Inventor Who Became “Mr Bristol City”, by Martin Powell and Clive Burlton, tells how he made his money through amazing inventions and how he invested it on trying to get his beloved football team to the top flight.
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Harry’s widow, Marina Dolman MBE, said: “During research for the book, I was thrilled to rediscover Harry’s hand-written notes with his version of events. “Some were drafts for speeches he gave, others just recollections he jotted down for his own amusement and record. They make this account of his life more accurate than we could ever have imagined.” The book describes how Harry rose from his humble rural roots in Wiltshire to a Rolls Royce-driving multi-millionaire with more than 100 patents to his name, from London Underground ticket machines to egg grading machines, a laundry marking system and a coin slot roulette wheel. He even built a Flying Flea single-seat, ultra-light, aircraft, which is now on display in the M Shed museum. Harry, who received the OBE for services to export in 1970, when head of Brecknell, Dolman and Rogers, could design a machine that would make millions, see solutions where others saw problems, and could sketch out a football stand on the back of a cigarette packet, and see it to fruition.
