Family History

Leslie (Les) Wade

My dad had been the most influential person in my life.

Les Wade’s Life

Born on the 24th of June 1930 in Astley Street on the old Kent Road to Arthur Henry Wade and Ester Matilda Wade. He had 2 older sisters Ester and Agatha and a much older half-brother Richard.

He went to school round the corner from Astley street at Coburge Road primary school right to the point where he was due to be evacuated during the war but his mum and dad didn’t want him to be away from them all.

He left school at the age of 14 and started an apprentiship at Hillgram Whatts as a Instrument maker (not musical) filing blocks of metal flat and square at first, then progressing on to milling and turning for equipment such as theodolites.

Les then went on to study for his National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at evening classes as well as taking part in his favourite activity, CYCLING! From his first bike bought from him by his mum and dad from the local cycle shop Ernie Hollands.

Les passed his Engineering Diploma and was moved on to more complicate engineering tasks. Les joined the fountain cycle club that meet every weekend near tooting where he met lots of cycling friends while out on club runs to Kent, this is where he met people from the other clubs such as the Pollhill and joined that club as it was starting to run races by the BLRC and the NCU.

First was the

  • 1948 Gresley Memorial Grand Prix

Then he became a profession cyclist and started to race in these races for the Fregius team

  • 1949 Gresley Memorial Grand Prix
  • 1949 Brighton to Glasgow
  • 1950 Brighton to Glasgow
  • 1950 Tour of the Clitons
  • 1950 Nottingham to Skegness

He had a great time in his racing team with his good friends and fantastic riders George Lander Dave Bedwell and Len West.

In 1952 the team was scheduled to do the Tour de France but was sadly pulled at the last minute, they did however carry on racing at Hearn Hill race track for a whole season in 1952 and then the tour of Brittan in 1954 for the Gnutti Chinelli team.

Building of the Merlin Rocket sailing dingy where his oldest nephew and his work friends used to crew for him

Les also used to play in the Jazz band in Post Office company Band  and practised in the basement  of Post Office headquarters during the lunchtime .

When Les finished his professional racing career he went on to working for the engineering side of the GPO (which is what is now the Post office and British Telecom) in London as an engineer where he worked firstly on the telephone exchanges and then moved to s technical drawing role for submarine cable plotting across the ocean. He then found a position as a engineering draftsman where he met a whole new lot of people including his wife Catherine who was a drafts woman. They got married in 1968 and moved to Heywards heath when their first son James was born. They then decided that to move back to London and into a lovely house in Hengrave Road in Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill area.

Les sadly then started to suffer with panic attacks and bad Depression that he learnt to get over with the help of a fantasic therapist that helped him gradually learn to control his mind over time.  After spending a lot of time getting the house back to a liveable condition their second son was born Matthew. Les took on extra duties teaching in the evening at the local college to help out with funds and also joined the local Baptist church in Crofton Park where he made lots of new friends and shared in sailing the church communal boat they had as well as playing in the worship team band on the drums.

Then his third son was born in 1981, Nicholas. Sadly Catherine had severe Post-natal depression and as a result Les looked after Nicholas for the early years of his life as well and his older brothers until Catherine was able to recover. During this difficult time Les continued to work in the post office until he took early retirement and then was asked back to become a contractor for the Post office and Parcel Force doing there technical drawings. This mean he was away 3 nights a week in Milton Keynes with his co-worker Roger Thomas.

Les fully retired at 65 and spend most of his time being with James children and Matthews children  as a grandad and as a father to his youngest son. He also found time to restore his classic car, a Rover P3 that had been garaged since 1980. Les then got involved with the close members of the road they lived in to help form the Forest Hill and District Classic Car Club, he had a Fair few classics that consisted of

  • A Rover P4
  • A Lanchester
  • Daimler 2.5
  • Daimler Consort
  • Fiat 500
  • Mini

 The club was very successful and used to fun outing to allsorts of locations where he exhibited his Rover P3. He shared his love of classic cars with his youngest son who by this time had shown interest in mechanical engineering and had bought a classic Mini.

In 2005 Les Catherine and Nicholas moved to Biggin Hill, Kent as it was Dad’s life long dream to out of London and in to the Kent countryside. Les then decided to join the local cycling club called the 40 plus cycling club who went out regularly in the Kent area, after about 10 years of going out regularly Les feel off his bicycle due to the increased amount of deep pot holes and hurt his shoulder and decided to stop cycling and move on to something he had always wanted to do which was playing crown green bowls, he joined the local Bowls club in Westerham, where he met lots of new friends, Les was always trying to improve his game and went to win a few awards for his bowling, he was also a keen quiz night contender at the bowls club during the winter months with his youngest Son Nicholas who was always by his side helping him to remain active. Les would also spend weekends with his youngest son with the renovation of a small property he had bought in Medway, giving valuable information and help.

Sadly Les suffered a stroke from but was not able to play bowls for a while until he recovered a bit, he did return to the bowls club but found it very difficult as time went on. In later years he stopped going and instead Les was taken out regularly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday  by Catherine his wife to see friends and people they knew regularly, meeting up in the Waitrose café and Biggin Hill Airport Café when Waitrose café shutdown. The weekends were spend with Nicholas where Les would oversee and help with the continued restoration of his Rover P3. Sadly one day Les fell back wards getting out of the car in the front garden and bashed his head and was taken to hospital where he was found to have a bleed on the brain, after recovering from the bleed Les was stuck in hospital for 3 months where he got a bit low and could not go home as a result Nicholas, James, Matthew and Catherine visited twice a day in turns so that he always had someone to talk to. Les was then placed into Tandridge Heights Care home in Oxted, where he was happy to be out of the hospital but he did not like being in the care home and where the care was questionable even with the same regular visits from his family every day. The effects of the fall had affected the results of the previous stroke and as a result les came more weaker and sadly passed away after only being in the care home for 1 year.