Sir George Wade

19th July 1891 – 27th January 1986

Colonel Sir George Albert Wade (19th July 1891 – 27th January 1986) was an English pottery manufacturer. Born in Burslem to a family who ran a pottery business, he was knighted in 1955 for political and public services.

He 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.

He 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.

Sir George Wade, Tony George Wade, Jeremy George Wade and George Francis Henry Wade in 1985.

Sadly the only photo of the four Georges!

In 1925 when he was back from the First World War he moved into St Quentin which had been built for him. He lived here until 1952 when he moved to Brand Hall

Brand Hall will be known to Wade collectors as Bloodshot Hall from the popular Whimsey on Why fictional English Villiage

Brand Hall where Sir George lived from 1952 until his death

Bloodshot Hall from Whimsey on Why

Sir George at work with one of his huge passions

The Portriat of Sir George which once hung in the boardroom at Wade Ceramics and was famouly stolen in the 1990’s. It is now safely back with the Wade family.