Introduction

Biography

Thomas was the son of Jo­shua and Ma­ry War­dle.

His fa­ther owned a silk dye­ing bu­si­ness at Ched­dle­ton Heath, which Tho­mas joined around age 16. Tho­mas be­came es­pec­ial­ly in­volved in chem­i­cal re­search and de­vel­op­ment, and, af­ter ma­ny years’ work on suit­a­ble dyes, he pro­duced a wild In­dian tus­sur silk.

In 1872, he bought the Hen­croft Dye­works and the Mill Street Dye­works in Leek. He and his bro­ther George bought Chur­net Works around 1875, and oth­er con­cerns in the years that fol­lowed.

Wardle be­longed to the North Staf­ford­shire Field Club, serv­ing as pre­si­dent and vice pre­si­dent for four decades.

His oth­er po­si­tions in­clud­ed chair­man­ship of the Silk As­so­cia­tion of Great Bri­tain and Ire­land, and fel­low­ships of the Roy­al So­cie­ty of Che­mists, and the Ge­o­lo­gi­cal So­cie­ty.

He was al­so hea­vi­ly in­volved in local church af­fairs, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the area of mu­sic.

In 1897, Queen Vic­tor­ia knight­ed him for ser­vice to the silk in­dus­try.