Mr Thomson Wade

I FIRST met Thomson Wade well over 40 years ago when working as a young reporter on the Down Recorder.

He was coaching a local Young Farmers Group in Downpatrick on the techniques they needed to use to be successful in livestock judging contests. And he certainly knew his stuff.

From that early meeting we developed a friendship which stood me in great stead when long afterwards I began to specialise in all things agricultural in the Belfast Telegraph.

For whenever I had a query, a problem or a difficulty pertaining to the livestock end of that industry, it was to Thomson I went for a solution. And I never found him wanting.

On life’s long journey one meets thousands of people, but with the passage of time most of them become little more than distant memories.

Thomson who came from outside Saintfield, may have just passed on, but he will never be a jaded or even faded memory to me.

The son of a farmer, he was from an early age deeply interested in farm animals as was seen through his selfless involvement with the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster and various prominent cattle breed bodies.

Most of the free time he had in his early years was spent away from business life tutoring teams of young farmers for various local, provincial and even national stock-judging contests.

And there was great pleasure too when with resounding success he brought several of those teams back from show places as far away as Stoneleigh Exhibition Centre in Warwickshire.

But away from the show ring there was the day job.

And for almost twenty years Thomson was a highly respected and extremely competent livestock advisor for prominent Northern Ireland feedstuffs firm, John Thompson & Sons.

At times he was quick to point out, in case there was any mistake, that his given name did not possess a ‘p’ so he was not a member of the Thompson family firm.

An outstanding authority on bovine genetics, he set up the Northern Ireland branch of Genus, a national pioneering company which not only brought top-quality semen to Northern Ireland livestock breeders but also afforded them the opportunity of embryo transplant technology which was then in its infancy in the province.

Known by most livestock farmers across the beef and dairy industries, Thomson’s thirst for knowledge in these fields took him to the United States where he gleaned much more on genetics and techniques which were well ahead of anything being produced in the UK at that time.

So he organised many trips for Northern Ireland livestock farmers to experience and learn from such far flung farm visits.

His ready wit, his ability to impart years of well-earned wisdom and his willingness to help at a moment’s notice, endeared him to those he met at the farm-gate and further beyond it.

A man of humble spirit, he always sought to better the lot of his fellow man and for that alone he is worthy of the personal recognition he never sought.

He was one of Life’s gentlemen and I am proud to have known him as a friend, not just for the many kind gestures he afforded me over the years but also for introducing me to a unique fraternity where fellowship and brotherhood are second nature. 

Michael Drake