William Frederick Adams was born on September 21st 1895 to William and Bridget Adams in London, England. William was the third of eight children and was baptized in the Anglican Church. He and his family immigrated to Canada in 1904 and settled in Preston (Cambridge) Ontario. William worked in the shoe trade and was a member of the militia.
Just shy of his nineteenth birthday, on September 14th 1914 William volunteered to fight for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. William’s older brother Charles followed in his footsteps a few months later, enlisting in Guelph. Unfortunately, young William’s life was cut short on May 7th 1915 in France when he died of shrapnel wounds to his chest. Private William Frederick Adams is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery grave VIII C2. His older brother Charles Adams survived the war, married a young woman named Agnes and named his first-born son after William.
Service number: 7115
“Canadian Virtual War Memorial: William Frederick Adams,” Veterans Affairs Canada, accessed February 1, 2015, http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/167811
