Gordon Wade was born in Plymouth on 22 July 1919 to Harry and Florida Wade (nee Ashton). He joined the Royal Air Force as an engineering apprentice in 1935 training at RAF Halton.

It was during his time at RAF Bicester that Gordon met his future wife Mary Joan Abraham (Bush) who was at that time living with her mother and her husband Isaac Bush in Thame. Mary was in The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.  Gordon and Mary married in Cambridge in February 1942 and had one son, Marcus, who was born in Thame in 1942.

On completing his apprenticeship Gordon was posted to 7 Squadron to be a flight engineer on Short Stirling bombers.  The first Stirlings arrived at Oakington, Cambs in October 1940.  7 Sqn being the first unit in the RAF to operate large four engine bombers.

On the 15th April 1943 Gordon was in the crew of Stirling BK769 which left Oakington as part of a 462 bomber raid on Stuttgart.  The aircraft was probably brought down by flack and crashed at Lembach, Germany killing all on board.  All seven crew are buried together in Bavaria, Germany.  His wife Mary remarried and after the war continued to live at Chestnuts in Upper High Street, Thame.

568514 Sergeant Gordon Wade, Royal Air Force, is buried in Durnbach Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany.  He is remembered on the war memorial in Thame, on an additional plaque placed there by his son Marcus in 1996.