ARTHUR EDWARD WADE
The Wade family to which Arthur Edward belonged were rooted in the farming community around Sydenham, Oxfordshire where his father Emmanuel was a shepherd. The entire family were born and raised in Sydenham in a cottage surrounded by the homes of fellow agricultural workers. Arthur Edward was born in 1883, the third child of Emmanuel and his wife Ada.
With a life working on the farms pencilled in for young Arthur he opted instead to join the navy and possibly did so as soon as he was old enough. As a sailor he would have visited many ports and one of them was inevitably Portsmouth where he met Beatrice Annie Matthews. The two were married in Liverpool in 1907 and the following year they were in Portsmouth when their daughter Evelyn May was born. The 1911 census places the family at 119 Dover Road, Copnor.
After the outbreak of the Great War Arthur Edward was posted to HM Submarine E6 where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. It is possible that the medal was awarded for his part in the release of a mine trapped between the hydroplane and guard of the E6 which was conducted by First Lieutenant Frederick Williams-Freeman who was subsequently awarded the DSO. Although the CWGC website gives the E6 as Arthur Edward's last posting this cannot be accurate as E6 was sunk by mine in December 1915 with all hands, eight months before he lost his own life. Research has not yet shown where he was when he died.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) lists Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class Arthur Edward Wade (270991), Royal Navy, HM Sub E6, died on 22/08/1916. Remembered at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (Panel 15).
Arthur Wade is also remembered on the WW1 Memorial at St. Andrew's Church, Farlington and on the Cenotaph (as A. Wade). He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'.
Tim Backhouse
April 2014