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George Wade (pottery manufacturer)

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George Albert Wade
Born(1891-07-19)19 July 1891
Burslem, England
Died27 January 1986(1986-01-27) (aged 94)
Known forWade Ceramics
TitleSir
SpouseFlorrie Johnson

George Albert Wade (19 July 1891 – 27 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.[1]

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.[1] 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.[1] He married Florrie Johnson in 1915.[1]

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.[2] In the 1950s, Wade Ceramics created and manufactured "Whimsies", small cheap solid porcelain animal figures, which became popular and collectable in Britain and America.[2]

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.[1] His hobbies included painting and ornithology.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f "People of Stoke-on-Trent: George Wade". thepotteries.org. 15 November 2005. Retrieved 22 October 2007.
  2. ^ a b Edward Duke. "Welcome to Wade Ceramics Ltd". Wade Ceramics Ltd. Retrieved 22 October 2007.