From the Smoky lake Signal, Wednesday, June 13, 1979

Ted Wade

from Oxford Student to Canadian Cowpoke to Provincial Judge

An era in judicial history is swiftly passing. One of our local residents, the retired Judge Ted Wade is part of that history. For Judge Wade who was appointed judge because he was an honest respected man in his community, not because he was a lawyer.

Judge Wade was born in Derby, England. By the time he was 17 he was a sergeant in the British army. World War I had broken out, while in London he was bombing by a zeppelin. But lived to see the great hydrogen balloons shot down by their, at that time, new invention tracer bullets. Shot down zeppelins were chopped up and sold for souvenirs, said the retired judge. At the end of the war he went to Oxford for a term. "I saw it wasn't going to do me any good," said the judge. "Besides my relatives who were putting me through went broke at the time. As a matter of fact, everybody went broke at that time in England."

Ted's father was doing well in Canada so he joined him. His dad was a livestock man. Farmers shipped cattle to him. He found the best price for the cattle and sold it for a commission. He did well until the depression of 1929. "I stayed with him for 2 years," said Judge Wade, "but we were both to hard headed to get along."

Mr. Wade went to work for a Scotch man, north of Calgary as a cowboy. He did fencing and bronc busting. That was how he earned his keep. I broke horses for a man in Bassano, explained Ted Wade, he owed me six hundred dollars and couldn't pay, which was hard to believe, because his cousin had left him a quarter of a million dollars. But his wife was executed of the estate. Since my friend was a drunk, his wife gave him $30 a month to live on, hell or high water. So Ted paid off all his friend's debts and that way bought the farm from him, just in time for the 1932 crash and the dropping in price for number 1 wheat to 18¢ a bushel.

In 1939 Ted Wade then joined the army with the Edmonton Regiment and he headed for England. The battle of Britain was on and fears of Hitler landing anywhere along the coast were upmost in the British mind. So the Regiment was sent up and down the coast every time rumors of the German invasion were heard. Then came the disaster of Dunkirk. The raid turned into a bloody fiasco for the Canadian army. "We were in the trucks ready for the next wave," said Ted Wade "when they finally called it off. The Germans flew two airplanes over filled with leaflets showing pictures of the dead Canadian soldiers and saying, 'Come along and join them'."

In 1943 he was sent to Italy. He fought his way through Sicily and up the Italian boot. Then over to Marseille and finally to fight in Holland. As the war ended his men raced across the Rhine and captured one of the few bridges left intact across the river. "I got too close to the Germans," said Ted Wade, "and one of them threw a hand grenade, a piece of which became lodged in my leg." After a quick trip tot he hospital Ted was back on the front only to have his brigade have to go back across the bridge. The generals hadn't planned on them crossing the river in the first place.

As a regimental sergeant-major, Ted was in the first troop as it entered Rotterdam to liberate the occupied city. The Colonel was a little cautious, said Ted, so we were armed with tank, but by the time we got half way through the city with all the screaming girls the colonel saw to his dismay that there were 12 girls starttling the big  gun and we couldn't have shot it if we had to. We soon ran out of cigarettes and chocolates.

After the war, Ted Wade returned to his farm in Bassano and raised alfalfa, barley, pigs and cattle until he semi-retired in 1957. The local magistrate at the time had died. A meeting of the citizens in Brooks decided if they didn't get out and find someone to take over the job they would "sent some stupid lawyer" down from Edmonton. They asked Ted Wade to take on the job.  Within a week the Social Credit government passed the appointment. Ted Wade became Judge Wade. The first day was murder. First he had to fine a friend $2 for simply holding a fishing rod while the man's son went to get a pack of cigarettes. Then in the afternoon, the highway traffic inspectors had 30 Hungarians from Tilley who had been caught using purple gas. They had a room full of them chattering away, said the Judge. After I fined the first one $50 the noise was even worse. Nobody paying attention I shouted "Order in the court" so loud that I frightened the cop so bad that he dropped all his papers.

"Justice is simple," said Judge Wade "if a man is guilty he's guilty." But then came the first of his eternal disputes with lawyers. Luckily, said the judge, I had taken Latin in school. The lawyer would start a sentence in Latin and I'd finish it for him. That usually shocked him back into English.

"I've seen three lawyers go to jail as common criminals," said Judge Wade "one of them a queen's council even died in jail."

In the Bassano area, during the days when the local Indians were first allowed to drink liquor, the cells filled up so fast that I held court in the police barracks. The truck would load them up, take them to the penitentiary in Drumheller and come back for another load as soon as they finished. Another time, said the judge, we held court in a truck. The cop was on one side, the offender a farmer in this case in the middle and I was on the other side. He had broken the law, he knew his truck was over weight and when he was caught, all he asked for was a speedy trial and we provided it. He paid the fine on the spot and went on to get his farm work done.

"Justice is being fair," said the Judge, "it's not that we need harsh sentences, but if that's what it took to persuade the guy never to come back to my court, that's what he got. You always have to remember that everytime a cop puts on his uniform he can be shot, just doing a days work."

In the Lac La Biche, Athabasca, Thorhild, Boyle, Redwater, Smoky Lake circuit Judge Wade drove 4000 miles a month. Then for a year he was a circuit judge relieving other judges who were taking holidays, or were sick. In the end he held court in over 30 different towns. At age of 70 mandatory retirement caught up with him and he settled down in Smoky Lake. "I had gotten used to Smoky," said the judge. "We'd been up here for years. I'd already sold my house in Brooks, so why go back. Judges should remember that justice is founded in the Bible," said the judge, "not in Latin phrases on lawyers lips. If we could just remember the 10 commandments and judge people accordingly, we would have a good system."

Other articles from the June 13, 1979 issue of the Signal:

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