Researching George Wade

Wade was a pupil at Newcastle High School, which has been amalgamated into the Newcastle-under-Lyme School, and left at age 15 to work at the family's pottery factory. He was a soldier between 1914 and 1919 in World War I, first as a private with the North Staffordshire Regiment, and then as a lieutenant with the South Staffordshire Regiment in the Machine Gun Corps, and he served in France and Egypt. He married Florrie Johnson in 1915.

Wade became chairman of the family's pottery business, Wade Ceramics Ltd, a manufacturer of porcelain and earthenware, whose main factory was in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. In the 1950s, Wade Ceramics created and manufactured "Whimsies", small cheap solid porcelain animal figures, which became popular and collectable in Britain and America.

Wade never fully stopped working, but in the early 1980s he gave the routine running of the business to his son George Anthony (Tony) Johnson Wade. His hobbies included painting and ornithology.

He was baptised on 17 April 1853 at Westminster, London, England. He was the son of the Rev. Canon Nugent Wade and Louisa Fenwick.

In 1929 Wade had two works dedicated in London, to Catherine and William Booth. He was the first General of the Salvation Army and she was the "Army Mother." Mrs. Booth presents a "serene and matronly figure", while he is "an Old Testament figure with eyes ablaze, beard flowing, finger pointing, medals mustered, and a small prayer book in his hand."

Wade was born on 16 August 1858 in China. His father, Joseph Henry Wade, was a missionary there. He was educated at Monmouth School and then at Oriel College Oxford. He was made deacon in 1885 and then ordained priest in 1886. He worked as curate of Basing, Hampshire from 1885 to 1886, before becoming professor of Latin and lecturer in Hebrew at St David's College, Lampeter. He married Rachel Elinor Joyce, the sister of the principal Gilbert Joyce. He remained at Lampeter until his retirement in 1932. He had a lasting influence on generations of students and through them, on the church in Wales. On retirement, he became temporary chaplain at Monmouth School. On 15 October 1941 Wade died at Monmouth, where he was buried.

He was a prolific author. His books include Old Testament History (1901), New Testament History (1922), and The Documents of the New Testament (1934), together with a number of commentaries In 1934, the University of Wales awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Divinity. His other interests included topography; he was wholly or partly responsible for the volumes on South Wales, Monmouthshire, Herefordshire and Somerset in the Methuen Little Guide series.