Claude Martin Wade

Career Claude Martin Wade was born in 1794 to Joseph Wade and his wife in Bengal. He was named after his godfather, Major General Claude Martin. The said General died in 1800 leaving his immense fortune, in the manner of a childless man, to charity. Wade had two children. A son named, Claude Fitzroy Wade, a barrister, and a daughter, Ellen Maud Welman.

Wade was appointed a cadet in the Bengal army in 1809 and became an Ensign posted to the Bengal Native Infantry in 1812 taking over from a Captain Murray. Col. C.M. Wade was the master of ceremonies at the Ropar Meeting that he organised between the Maharaja and the governor-general of the East India Company. He was able to win the confidence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh through mutual regard and understanding which greatly helped to change the relations between the two Governments from undisguised hostility to close friendship and accord.

In the 1830s, the British decided to replace Dost Mohammad Khan by Shah Shuja on the Kabul throne. and made a Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath.