Transcript

of

Charles Henry Wade [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol.  XXXVI, (1904), p. 40.

by

J. Brooking-Rowe (Ed.).

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1904 Teignmouth meeting. Dr Wade was from a Cornish family whose presence in that county can be traced to 1313 when a man named Wade was granted a market and two fairs in the manor of Pawton. The Wade bridge was built across the river Camel in 1460 and Wadebridge became an important town for local wool merchants and sheep farmers. A Wade family lived at Trethevy Court in Tintagel. They included Arthur Wade, mayor of Tintagel in 1775.  The 19th century brought hard times to Cornwall.  Trethevy Court is now a ruin. Most of the Wades have emigrated, to North America or the Antipodes. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Charles Henry Wade. This gentleman was connected with the Cornish family of Wade. He lived at Torquay for some years, practising as a surgeon, and taking an active part in the public life of the place. He was chairman of the Cockington District Council for some time before and at the time of that parish becoming absorbed in Torquay. He was a ready and good speaker, and was fond of lecturing on health and sanitary matters, to the great advantage of his hearers and the community. He was a member of the Torquay Natural History Society, and of the Teign Valley Naturalists’ Field Club, and filled the office of president of both. Local affairs of various kinds also engaged his attention, and he was an active member of the Torquay Constitutional Club. He was elected a member of our Association in 1893, but he never contributed to its proceedings. In 1899 he left Torquay to take up new professional work at Southend-on-Sea, where he died very suddenly of acute pneumonia on the 13th October, 1903, at the age of fifty. He was M.A. of London University, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.