George Ewart Wade

Forename(s):
George Ewart

Surname:
Wade

Initial(s):
G E

Service Number:
123022

Rank:
Gunner

Regiment:
Royal Garrison Artillery, 48th Artillery Brigade, 351st Siege Battery

Died:
11/10/1917

Aged:
21

Buried:
Brandhoek New Military Cemetery No. 3

Service History:
Enlisted at Alnwick, Northumberland.
(N.B. 'Soldiers Died' shows Nottinghamshire but this is probably a mistake, there appears to be no such place in that county).

Different sources give different dates for when 351st Battery arrived in France: January or April 1917

Died of wounds received. 'The Fallen of Embleton 1914-1919' records that Gunner Wade had reached a Casualty Clearing Station by 11 October 1917, which might suggest he was wounded during the Battle of Poelkapelle, or possibly the Battle of Broodseinde, as part of the wider Third Battle of Ypres campaign, commonly referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele.
(Source: 'The Fallen of Embleton 1914-1919'; Written & researched by Terry Howells, Mary Kibble, & Monica Cornall; pp. 35-37).

Background:
Born in 1896, at Embleton, Northumberland, the son of Frank (b. in 1853, at Wath Upon Dearne, West Yorkshire; a Schoolmaster) & Annie (née Ewart; b. 1856, at Eyemouth, Berwickshire; before her children were born, a Schoolmistress) Wade.

Wade was one of ten children born between 1878 & 1899. The 1911 Census records one child as having died, at some point.

Frank Wade became Headmaster of the Vincent Edwards School at Embleton in 1877. His salary was £22-0s-0d per annum, plus 'school pence', which was probably the money collected from pupils for their education (between 1d & 3d per child per week, depending on age, for the first 3 children in a family, then free for any others). Also. the family lived in the School Master's House free of charge.

Frank Wade remained in post until 1890 at which point he was dismissed by the Church in controversial circumstances, which divided opinion in the village. He then opened the 'Private Adventure School' & some pupils transferred while others moved to Newton School however the venture did not last long, probably no more than 2 years, & the 1901 Census shows Wade as a Grocer Shopkeeper. He was still a Grocer in 1911 but, also, an Assistant Overseer & Rate Collector for the Parish Council.

It is not known what work Wade did when he left school.
(Source: 'The Fallen of Embleton 1914-1919'; Written & researched by Terry Howells, Mary Kibble, & Monica Cornall; pp. 35-37).

According to 'Soldiers Died...' & Ancestry.co.uk, Wade was resident at Leebury, Northumberland but this is likely to have been a misspelling & should read Lesbury, which appears after Embleton in the records of a number of other casualties in their databases.

Local Memorial:
Alnwick, Memorial Plaque in former premises of the DukeÂ’s School (Source: For Duke's School, Dudley George; August 2018) Embleton, Memorial Obelisk, Spitalford Cemetery Embleton, Church of England School Memorial Plaque Embleton, Presbyterian Communio