1853 - 1933

Sculptor. He studied law, but, whilst recuperating from illness in Italy, he decided to switch to sculpture. He was self-taught, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889. A terracotta bust of his father, Canon Nugent Wade, shown there the following year, attracted the attention of the sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm, who secured Wade further commissions. Boehm died at the end of 1890 and Wade took over his studio, completing his statue of the Duke of Connaught for Hong Kong (destroyed in World War II). Wade became a celebrated portrait sculptor. His seated figure of Tirnvarnur Muthuswamy for the law courts in Madras was shown at the RA in 1897. He executed figures of Queen Victoria for Allahabad and for Colombo. His standing figure of Edward VII in Coronation Robes can be seen in versions at Reading (1902), Bootle and Madras (1903), his Queen Alexandra (1908) at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London. Towards the end of his life, Wade executed an equestrian statue of Field Marshal Haig for the castle esplanade in Edinburgh, which is in a markedly more naturalistic style than Hardiman’s statue of Haig in Whitehall. Wade also produced a number of appealing statuettes. His Grenadier Guard was especially popular, one cast being bought by Queen Victoria. He showed no work at the Royal Academy after 1900. In his later years he devoted much of his time to his favourite sport, golf, and to designing aircraft and planning country houses.