ADAMS, Frederick John. CH. WW1. CWGC.

Died 11/04/1916, Star & Garter Hospital, Richmond, Age 25. Private, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, 5th Bn. Service Number 17419. Husband of Ethel Adams of Derby. Electrician.

Frederick John ADAMS’s birth was registered in Derby in the autumn of 1890, although in all later records he gave his birth year as 1891. His parents were John Adams, a joiner from Carlton in Leicestershire, and Annie Adams (nee Pemberton) from Nailstone in Leicestershire who were married in the autumn of 1889 in St Chad, Derby.

The 1891 Census has his family living at 106 Dean Street, Derby. By the 1901 Census the family had moved to 79 Stanhope Street, Derby.

Frederick John ADAMS was the eldest of three children. In 1911, whilst his parents and their other children were still at the same Derby address, Frederick John ADAMS was now working as an electrician and living as a boarder at 22 Havelock Street in Nottingham.

Frederick John ADAMS married Ethel Merry (born Q3 1886 in Nuneaton) in the second quarter of 1911 in Nottingham, and on 17 July 1912 their only child, also named Frederick John Adams, was born in Coventry.

Frederick John ADAMS enlisted at Nuneaton on 11 January 1915 into the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. His military enlistment records his address at the time as c/o Mrs Lee, Punch Bowl, Nuneaton. The 1911 Census shows Mrs Lee, a widow, as the licensee of The Punch Bowl Inn, Tuttle Hill, Nuneaton, where a Fred Merry (possibly the brother of Frederick John ADAMS’s wife Ethel Merry was employed as a barman. 

He served in France from 10 June 1915. On 23 June 1915 at Ypres he was wounded by a gunshot to the leg and on 27 June 1915 was admitted to the 13th General Hospital in Boulogne, France, then repatriated on 22 July 1915.  As a result of his injury he was unable to stand.  On 6 March 1916 Frederick John ADAMS was discharged as medically unfit for military service, with his address as 80 Stanhope Street, Derby.  He died on 11th April 1916 at the Star & Garter Hospital, Richmond, Surrey and was buried at Nottingham Road Cemetery, date of burial 14 Apr 1916, Plot: A38/*/50367.

Frederick John ADAMS was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

In 1939 his son, also called Frederick John ADAMS, was married and working as a bread salesman in Cheslyn Hay, Cannock, Staffordshire.   

Sources: Census of 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1939. Register of Marriages. Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths. Military Attestation, Medical Record and Medal Records. Newspaper articles and announcements.