Adams William Henry

ADAMS, WILLIAM HENRY

		Source
		CWGC	SDGW	Uttoxeter Advertiser	Other
Parents	Joseph and Maria Adams, of 2, Chapel Street, Forsbrook, Blythe Bridge, Stoke-on-Trent	Yes		NA
Where born	Leigh, Uttoxeter District				a
Where born	Forsbrook		Yes
When born	Abt 1898				9
Address	Sunderland				1
Spouse
Children
Employment Before Joining up	Believed to be working at the New Haden Colliery, Cheadle				2
Where Enlisted	Longton, Staffordshire		Yes
Regiment	Royal Field Artillery	Yes	Yes		2 8
Unit	“D” Battery, 160th Brigade	Yes			2
Unit	160th (Wearside) Brigade				1
Rank	Gunner	Yes	Yes		2
Service Number	129102	Yes	Yes		2 8
Date of Death	21 March 1918	Yes	Yes		2 8
Age at time of death	20	Yes			2
Where Killed or died	France/Flanders		Yes
How he died	Killed in Action				1
How he died	Died of Wounds		Yes
Location of Grave or Memorial	No known grave. Commemorated on the Arras Memorial – Bay 1	Yes
Awards	Victory Medal: Roll RFA/256B Page 31215				8
Awards	British War Medal: Roll RFA/256B Page 31215				8
Other Places Commemorated	Roll of Honour for New Haden Colliery, Cheadle				2
Other Places Commemorated	Blythe Bridge and Cheadle War Memorial				2

This photograph of William was rescued from a bonfire by his great-nephew Phil Adams when the family were sorting out rubbish.

William was born in about 1898 in Leigh, near Uttoxeter, the son of Joseph and Maria Adams, of 2, Chapel Street, Forsbrook, Blythe Bridge, Stoke-on-Trent.

Before the war he worked at the New Haden Colliery, Cheadle and he appears on their Roll of Honour.

He enlisted at Longton in Staffordshire. He served as Gunner 129102 with the “D” Battery, 160th (Wearside) Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery.

The following details were obtained from a web-site set up by the Sunderland Echo as a tribute to the heroes of the Wearside Brigade. On it, Phil Adams, the Great-nephew of William Adams, gave some information about William

The photograph of William had hung in a frame in his Grandfather’s office throughout Phil’s childhood and he had always been fascinated by him. All that he knew was that he had been his Grandfather’s brother, William Henry Adams, and that he had been killed during the First World War. When his Grandfather died, the photograph went into storage, and Phil did not see it again until one day when he visited his Grandmother. Some of the family were burning unwanted possessions on a bonfire in the garden, and on the top of the pile, waiting to be thrown on the bonfire, was the photograph of William.

Phil rescued the photograph and then decided to find out as much as he could about him. He has visited the village, 10 miles south of Arras, where William was killed by the side of a railway embankment when the Germans took the land.

Henry Adams was born in Uttoxeter. [Note, this is at variance with his entry in the Soldiers Died in the Great War’ database, which gives his place of birth as Longton. T He was one of Kitchener’s volunteers and had been inspired by the posters of Lord Kitchener proclaiming “Your country needs YOU”.
He was sent to the North East for training.
At some stage it is believed that he was drafted into the Wearside Brigade in 1917 to take the place of men who had been killed.
Henry’s Brigade took part in the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916 and, as he was one of Kitchener’s Volunteers, this is likely to have been his first engagement.
They then went on to take part in continuous action around Ypres in 1917 before moving on to St. Quentin. After that, they took part in the battles around Passchendaele.
In November 1917 they also took part in the battle of Cambrai, where tanks were used in significant numbers for the first time in warfare.
William is likely to have taken part in all of these engagements.
William’s Brigade took part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. By the time the armistice was signed, 554 of the 700 volunteers had been killed or wounded.

The date of his death tells us that he was killed during on the opening day of the Spring Offensives of 1918. He was 20 years old.

William has no known grave and his is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.