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( Thomas Francis Wade)
Sir Thomas Francis Wade, GCMG, KCB (25 August 1818 – 31 July 1895) was a London-born British diplomat and sinologist who produced a syllabary in 1859 that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles Romanization for Mandarin Chinese by Herbert Giles in 1892. His Chinese name was Wei Tuoma (???). Born in London, the son of Major Wade of the Black Watch, by his wife Anne Smythe (daughter of William Smythe) of Barbavilla, County Westmeath, Ireland. In 1838, his father purchased for him a commission in the 81st Foot. Exchanging (1839) into the 42nd Highlanders, he served with his regiment in the Ionian Islands, devoting his leisure to the congenial study of Italian and modern Greek. On receiving his commission as lieutenant in 1841 be exchanged into the 98th Foot, then under orders for Qing China, and landed in Hong Kong in June 1842. The scene of the First Opium War had at that time been transferred to the Yangtze River, and thither Wade was ordered with his regiment. There he took part in the attack on Zhenjiang and in the advance on Nanking. In 1845, he was appointed interpreter in Cantonese to the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, and in 1846 assistant Chinese secretary to the superintendent of trade, Sir John Francis Davis. In 1852 he was appointed vice-consul at Shanghai. The Taiping Rebellion had so disorganized the administration in the neighborhood of Shanghai that it was considered advisable to put the collection of the foreign customs duties into commission, a committee of three, of whom Wade was the chief, being entrusted with the administration of the customs. This formed the beginning of the imperial maritime customs service.
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