Arthur Wade was accidentally drowned at Mermaid Beach on the South Coast of Queensland on 8th April, 1951. He was 71 years of age.
A student at the Royal College of Science from 1903 to 1904 and 1907 to 1908, he was awarded the Murchison Medal in Geology in 1904 and was a Teaching Associate of the College. In 1907 he obtained the London B.Sc. in Geology, with first-class honours, gaining his D.Sc. in 1911. From 1906 to 1910 he was demonstrator in geology at the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines at the same time acting as adviser to various oil and coal companies.
Dr. Wade continued reporting work for petroleum companies from 1911 to 1913 in the near and far east, in 1912 becoming general manager of Eastern Petroleum Co. and Suez Oil Co. In September, 1913, he was appointed Director of Oilfields for the Australian Government with headquarters in New Guinea. During the eight years he remained in that post he was also consulting oil technologist to the Governments of South Australia and Tasmania, and was engaged on reporting work in Portuguese Timor.
He relinquished his work with the Australian (government in 1921 and went to Fort Worth, Texas, as consultant, and two years later engaged in geological investigations in Madagascar for the Standard Oil Co. of California. He was adviser to the Australian Government on matters concerning petroleum from 1924 to 1926, and in the latter year set up as a consultant with headquarters in London. For the following seven years he carried out geological investigations all over the world. He returned to Australia in 1933, holding an appointment with the Freney Kimberley Oil Co. until 1936, when he became a member, and later Chairman, of the Commonwealth Oil Advisory Committee of the Australian Government. The Committee was disbanded in 1940 and Dr. Wade joined Shell (Queensland) Development Pty., Ltd., with which Company he was still connected at the time of his death. During the period 1943-1946, when the work of the company was suspended owing to the war, he acted as geological adviser to the Geographical Section of Allied Intelligence.
Dr. Wade was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1911 and as transferred to Membership in 1921.
He contributed many papers and articles to the literature on geology and petroleum deposits.
Vol. 60, Trans IMM 1950-51, p.512
