ANTHONY (TONY) WADE MBE was born in 1932 in the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat in the Caribbean, one of five he was only six when his mother died.  

Tony left the West Indies in 1954 as part of the Windrush generation, sailing on the SS Ascania to Southampton. His first job in the UK was at Lyons Corner House and he studied business and English at night school, moving on to study accountancy and work in finance in mainstream companies before striking out on his own in business. In 1968 he joined Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden’s company Dyke & Dryden. 

Following Tony’s appointment as a director in 1968, the three pioneering black businessmen took the company in a new direction and focussed on the sale of afro hair and beauty products for Black women, who were then completely under-served in the UK.

The company’s first shop in Tottenham was a success and the business expanded rapidly with more shops and by trading internationally. In 1983 they launched the annual ‘Afro Hair and Beauty’ exhibition. The company’s community outreach included helping Barnardo’s workers care for children’s hair. Dyke & Dryden was sold to an American competitor in the 1990s.

In June 1962 Tony married Jamaican nurse Daphne, with whom he had daughter Samenua Sesher (Deborah) and son Aqasa Nu (Anthony Jnr.). Daphne died at 42, following treatment for breast cancer. Tony went on to marry American Roslyn Taylor, and later, following their divorce, he married his now widow Vasantha Benjamin with whom he shares a daughter Sarah. 

As well as his role as a leading Black British businessman, Tony Wade also worked tirelessly to promote community development and young people’s employability as well as encouraging entrepreneurship. 

He held many charitable and public appointments, including as a director of the North London Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) for 10 years. He was a board member of Business in the Community and a Director of the New River Health Authority.

In 1993 Housing Secretary George Young, appointed Wade to Chair the board of Brent Housing Action Trust, later Stonebridge Housing Trust, a then rare senior appointment of a black person to chair a non-departmental government body. 

Wade was the author of several successful books including ‘Black Enterprise in Britain’. He received an MBE in 1987.

Tony passed away on September 7 2023 in Jamaica, having been ill for some time.