My father, Tony Wade, who has died aged 90, was one of the UK’s leading black entrepreneurs during the 1970s and 80s. As a director of Dyke & Dryden, which he ran with two other black businessmen, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden, he helped to take the business, which initially specialised in record distribution and travel agency, towards the sale of afro hair and beauty products for black women.
The company set up its first shop in Tottenham, north London, in the late 60s, and it became such a success that the business expanded rapidly, opening further outlets in London and Birmingham and trading internationally.
As well as his role as a leading black British businessman, Tony also worked to promote community development and young people’s employability. He held many charitable and public appointments, including as a director of the North London Training and Enterprise Council and as a board member of Business in the Community.
Tony was born in Montserrat, one of the five children of James, a fisherman, and his wife, Henrietta (nee Greenaway), a seamstress, who died when Tony was six. After attending Montserrat secondary school he trained as a shoemaker and worked in that trade until the age of 22, when he left for the UK in 1954, sailing on the RMS Ascania to Southampton.
His first job in Britain was washing dishes at a Lyons’ Corner House at Marble Arch in central London, but he also studied business and English in the evenings at the College of North East London, later moving on to learn accountancy there.
Thereafter he made a living by importing and exporting, before joining Dyke & Dryden in 1968 as a director. The company’s community outreach included helping white Barnardo’s staff learn how to care for black children’s hair, and in 1983 the business launched the popular annual Afro Hair and Beauty Exhibition, which is still going.
Tony was appointed MBE in 1987, and in 1993 the housing secretary, George Young, made him chair of the board of Brent Housing Action Trust, later Stonebridge Housing Trust.
Dyke & Dryden was sold to a South African group of companies in 1998, after which Tony became chair of Montserrat Volcano UK Trust, helping to deal with the aftermath of the 1997 volcanic eruption in Montserrat that killed 19 people and rendered a significant part of the island uninhabitable.
He also later wrote three books, Black Enterprise in Britain (2005), The Adventures of an Economic Migrant (2007) and The Black Cosmetic Kings (2017), an account of the black hair care industry in Britain.
His second marriage to Roslyn Taylor ended in an amicable divorce. He married his third wife, Vasantha Benjamin, in 1992 and went on to enjoy his retirement with her, dividing their time between homes in London and Jamaica, where he died.
He is survived by Vasantha and their daughter, Sarah, and his two children, Aqasa and me, from his first marriage to Daphne (nee Pottinger), who died in 1979.
