Isiah was born in Stamford in 1893. In 1911, aged 18, he was living with his widowed father John Wade, an iron finisher in a foundry making agricultural implements, at 27 St Paul’s Street (now demolished). His mother, Elizabeth M A Wade (nee Monk) had recently died in January 1911. His parents had eleven surviving children. Three had died. All the family had been born in Stamford.

At the time of the 1911 Census six children were still at home. His eldest sister, Sarah, and two of her children were visiting from their home in Toxteth (Liverpool) . Isiah was a fitter’s apprentice, Albert , an elder brother was a moulder, Mary Jane was a housekeeper at home and Kate was a servant. Charles was an errand boy and Harry, aged 11, was at school. They also shared their home with a boarder, Thomas Hanwell ( a labourer).

In 1901 the family had lived at 2 Laxton’s Court, St Leonard’s Street, when ten children were at home. At this time their father was a foundry labourer.

At the outbreak of the war in 1914 Private Isiah Wade (1870) aged 21, enlisted in the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. It was a Territorial Force. At first he was stationed at Lincoln as part of the Lincoln & Leicester Brigade of the North Midland Division. On the 11th August 1914 he was moved to Belper and then to Luton.
Then on 1st February he was mobilised for war and landed at Le Havre, the formation became the 138th Brigade of the 46th Division which engaged in various actions on the Western Front including The Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13th October 1915 . It was on this day that Isiah was killed.

‘It was the division’s first major action after its arrival on the Western Front but it was a gallant failure. The casualties incurred that afternoon changed forever the fine pre-war territorial character of the division. The battle took place on the last afternoon of the battle of Loos, some 12 miles to the north, their objective was for “The Hump” an old mine slag heap which controlled the high ground, housing observation posts, machine guns etc. The battle started with the usual artillery barrage early morning, after a lengthy pause, it was followed later with a gas attack, this proved to be ineffective, once again the high command demanded another pause before the troops went over the top. This gave the Germans the opportunity to occupy their positions ready for the expected attack. The trench lines were only 200 yards apart, the Germans had a small bulge in their line which gave them a clear field of fire down no man’s land, this had been fortified with machine guns.

The 1/4th and 1/5th Lincolnshire Regiments were the first to go over the top, they were wiped out in less than half an hour. Of those killed 90% of the 1/4th Lincolns and 97% of the 1/5th Lincolns have no known graves. It is interesting to note that the percentage of casualties were higher than in the battle of the “Somme”.

Records show that as these were regiments whose recruits were from the same towns and villages many brothers, fathers and sons, uncles and cousins all died together.’

Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Many other recruits from Stamford lost their lives on this day.

Isiah’s name appears on the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

He is also remembered on the Lincolnshire Regiment Roll of Honour WW1, the Stamford Memorial and All Saints’ Memorial