Frederick Adams (1879-1916)

Post date: Sep 17, 2015 11:59:28 AM

The Adams family was living in Pizien Well at the time of the 1841 census.

Frederick was born in Wateringbury in 1879, the son of William (also born in Wateringbury) and Mary Adams. His father was a farm labourer. Frederick and (by 1891) his six siblings and parents lived in Latter's Buildings on Old Road. He went to school at Wateringbury School. His brothers, Albert, William, Levi and Percy also served in the war and Percy was killed in 1918.

Frederick enlisted (service number 976) as a militiaman for 6 years in the 3rd Battalion of The Royal West Kent Regiment, aged 17 years and 11 months, on 17^th November 1896 . He was then single and working as a labourer for a Mr. Wickham in Nettlestead. His medical examination shows he was 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighed 111 lbs, had a 31 ¹/₂ inch chest, brown hair and eyes, a fresh complexion and had scars on his left knee and left side of his back.

The Parish magazine of March 1903 records the stories of Wateringbury men in the Second Boer War with a short reference to

Lance-Corp. Frederick Adams (B Co., R. W. Kent) was out only 5 months, occupied in the dreary work of a Block House near Hielbron.

Frederick was one of 12 men from the village who survived the Boer War; two had died, both from disease rather than enemy action.

He married Emily Eliza Wade on 3rd April in Barming Church and they had children in 1906, 1908 and 1909 - the first two born in Loose and the third in Aylesford. In 1911 he was living with his wife and 3 children in Forge Corner, Peckham Bush, Hadlow, East Peckham where he was a farm labourer.

On 22^nd August 1914 aged 36 years and 36 days and now married but recorded as living in Wateringbury, he enlisted again (new service number S/137), in Maidstone, on a one year contract in the Army Reserve (Special Reservists). His height was the same and at 120 lbs he had only put on 9 lbs since he was 17! His chest was now an extra 3 inches at 36 ¹/₂ inches. He now had tattoo marks on both forearms.

He was during all his WW1 service, of just one month under 2 years to his death on 22^nd July, a private. He was initially posted to the 3rd Battalion of the R.W.K but in December 1914 he was posted to the 1st Battalion of the R.W.K. with whom he went to France in the same month. He caught influenza in March 1915 and had hernia problems in March 1916.

After his death on 22^nd July 1916 his personal effects were ordered to be sent to Mrs. E. E. Adams living in Nettlestead Green, Wateringbury although another army form records her as living at Killicks Cottages in Yalding.

Emily was awarded (for herself and 3 children) in 1917 after Frederick's death a widow's pension of 20 shillings and 6 pence (£1.025) a week.

Captain C.T. Atkinson's The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914-1919 (published 1924) (pages 194 to 196 excluding maps) gives the following account of the 1st Battalion during the days leading up to Frederick's death, 22^nd July 1916, the start of the 4^th week of the Somme offensive:

The 1^st R.W.K... whose Division [15^th Brigade, 5^th Division] came into line between Longueval and Bazentin le Grand on July 19^th, came in for heavy and costly fighting. The battalion was in reserve when the Division made its first attack. This was on 20^th July, and had as objective a road running S.E. from the E. corner of High Wood. Partial success only was achieved, and that evening the battalion took over the left of its brigade's front, its left resting on the Southern angle of the wood from which its line followed a track running S.E. It was a hot corner, the situation in High Wood¹ was most obscure and the German artillery most active, while the battalion had to push out many patrols to locate the enemy, and the day's casualties came to 90 in all, though the majority of them were accounted for by a heavy barrage in which one company was caught when moving up. Sergt. Traill distinguished himself greatly by the coolness and skill which he displayed, keeping his platoon together and bringing it through the barrage with very few casualties and then setting a splendid example to men while they were digging in under heavy fire. Sergt. Davis and L/Cpl. Butler also were conspicuous for the devotion and gallantry with which they went out repeatedly to relay and mend the telephone wires and keep up communication between the front line and Battalion Headquarters. Then, after two strenuous days in the line came another big effort all along the front from Guillemont to Pozieres.

In this attack the battalion's special objective was Wood Lane², a trench 400 yards ahead and just beyond the road which the brigade had tried to reach on July 20^th. This trench lay over the crest of a gentle slope and could not be seen from our front line. Its capture was essential as a preliminary to the attack on Switch Trench, the main objective of the Division. This, which ran more or less E. and W. through the Northern end of the High Wood, was to be attacked at 1 a.m. on July 23^rd, the preliminary attack by the 13^th Brigade being timed for 10 p.m. This allowed but little time for bombarding or for accurate location and registration of the object.

However, the lie of the ground allowed the leading companies, A and B, to advance almost to the crest before the barrage lifted. Thanks largely to this they reached the road almost without a casualty and pushed on towards their objective. But as they topped the crest rifle and machine-gun fire caught them in the flank from High Wood and in front from Switch Trench . Many officers and men fell, and though at two points the trench was reached and a lodgement made both parties were unsupported, for the battalion on the right had not got as far forward, and High Wood itself had again proved impregnable. A platoon of C, under Lieut. Peachey, had been detailed to guard the left flank and to capture the strong point believed to exist just inside the wood, but it was shot down almost to a man and the enfilade machine-gun fire from this strong point proved most effective. Nevertheless both detachments held on with great determination. On the right 30 men of A established themselves in the trench though all their officers had fallen and were only at length dislodged when their supply of bombs ran out. On the left a platoon of B under Lieut. J. J. Scott and Sergt. Franklin occupied about 40 yards of the trench, inflicted many casualties on the Germans and maintained themselves firmly for nearly four hours., though the enemy made several bombing attacks from the left. These were repulsed mainly through the skill and gallantry of Pte. Butlin, who sprang over some German bombs which were just about to explode and, hurling his own bombs at the Germans , drove them back and secured the flank of his party. At another point Sergt. Traill collected a few men, dug in 15 yards from the German trenches, and hung on in this advanced position for several hours, killing several Germans who came out to capture some of the British wounded, and when he finally retired brought back several wounded with him. In the end, however, all these scattered parties had to be withdrawn to the original line. Nearly 400 of those who had started to the attack were casualties, Captain Bennett, Lieuts. Healey and Barlett, 2nd Lieuts. Cornford, J. A. Fleming, Leatherdale, Cross, Lewinstein, Fox and Gillett were killed, and four other officers wounded. Many who would otherwise have been missing were brought safely in, thanks to the splendid courage and devotion of Corpl. Hatch, the N.C.O. in charge of the stretcher-bearers. He was indefatigable in the work of succour, although he was out for over seven hours, working from shell-hole to shell-hole, carrying men on his back under the heaviest fire, and altogether rescuing nearly 50 wounded before he himself was at last hit. The standard required for the V.C. must indeed have been high when such gallantry only received the D.C.M.

The August 1916 Parish Magazine notes his death as follows:

It is with great regret that we have to record the death on active service, in the battle of the Somme, of Frederick Adams, Albert William Frank Cheeseman and William Thomas Butcher. Adams and Cheeseman each leaves a widow and young children. The former a member of an old Wateringbury family, settled at Yalding, and recently removed to Nettlestead; the latter, who married one of the Waghorns, of Birchetts, is a recent comer to the parish, but his widow and children do not on that account receive less of our sympathy in their trouble. Willie Butcher, like Adams, grew up among us—a fine young fellow, of whom the last seen was when, acting as a messenger, he stopped on his way through the trenches to bind up the wounds of a comrade. On Sunday, August 13th, we hold a Memorial Service in Church at 3 p.m., for these three, and also for Thomas Richard Bowles, whose death (previously recorded) occurred on board H.M.S. Lion in the Jutland naval victory. We shall also include the memory of Arthur Jukes and also of Charles Bevan, who, like Jukes, has been missing since September of last year, and whose name, hitherto retained in hope on our active list, we now feel with sorrow must be transferred to our Roll of Honour.

Frederick, along with 72,000 others (including from Wateringbury: William Cowlard, George Datlen, Albert Herbert, Lewis Newman, Frederick Latter, William Butchers, Thomas Weller, and George Pearce) with no known grave, is commemorated on Pier and Face 11C of the Thiepval Memorial, designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, and located on the D73 next to the village of Thiepval, France.

Notes:

1. High Wood is on the D107 road between Martinpuich and Longueval. It is today close to the New Zealand Memorial. In July 1916 it was behind the German Second Line. From High Wood Germans could observe any Allied attempts to capture it. It was finally captured on 15th September with the help of 4 tanks.

2. Wood Lane reaches the Eastern Corner of High Wood.