[42799] Bradford : Undercliffe Cemetery - Lord Mayor & Lady Mayoress

Undercliffe Cemetery, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Lt Col Sir Anthony Gadie (1868-1948), Lord Mayor & Freeman of Bradford.

Eliza Ann Gadie (d1923), Lady Mayoress 1920-21.

 

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Anthony Gadie was a businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was self-made man. Born in a small cottage in Skipton, he became a builder and then an estate agent, a Lord Mayor of Bradford and a local councillor and Alderman for 45 years. He served as an army officer in France during World War I and as a Member of Parliament in the 1920s, but is best known for his involvement with construction of the Scar House Reservoir.

 

He was a member of Bradford City Council from 1900 to 1945 and was the Lord Mayor of Bradford from 1920 to 1921. He also served as chair of the Corporation's Water Committee, playing a big part in establishing the Scar House Reservoir, which was completed in 1936. Scar House was the second of two reservoirs built at great cost by Bradford Corporation in Upper Nidderdale to supply the city's needs. The reservoir was dismissed by some as a waste of money, and known as "Gadie's Folly". However, during the droughts of 1933 and 1934 Bradford had all the water it needed.

 

Gadie was Chairman of the Bradford Conservative and Unionist Association from 1924 to 1947 and at the 1924 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Bradford Central, winning the seat from the sitting Labour Party MP. However, Labour re-gained the seat at the 1929 general election and after his defeat Gadie did not stand for Parliament again.

 

He was knighted "for political and public services in Bradford" in 1935. He was a freemason and was awarded the freedom of the City of Bradford in 1946. He died on 24 August 1948, aged 79, He lived at "Oakwood", Toller Lane, Bradford.

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