[1] Dudley was born in Wandsworth, London, the son of an engine driver.
Initially he was with the infantry, transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps in 1941.
[2] He returned to the Infantry in 1944, first the Devons and then as a seconded Platoon commander with the Queen's and served in Italy.
[2] After the war, Dudley started work at the Belsize Park Library in North London.
In 1983 he became editor of the New Library World and subsequently was involved in the founding of the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.