Lives of the First World War

In uniform

This is a scan from microfilm of the obituary of Private Graham Adams as first published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury on 15 June 1918.

This is a photo of a large wooden wall mounted memorial in St. Andrew's Church, Gorleston which is inscribed with all the names of those Gorleston men who gave their lives in the Great War. The wooden memorial is in a small chapel behind where the organ is located at the High Altar end of the Church.

A photo showing the 1st name, 'G. Adams' on the Great Yarmouth Great War Memorial as located in St. George's Park, Great Yarmouth.

Photo of headstone of Graham's parents as located in the Gorleston old cemetery. It also bears an inscription in memory of their son Graham. The headstone reads, "In loving memory of William Adams who saved 140 lives from drowning. Died Oct. 14th 1913, aged 49 years. Also his wife Ellen Elizabeth Adams, died Feb. 25th 1939, aged 72 years. "Re-united." Also their son, Pte. Graham Adams, died while a prisoner of war in Turkey, aged 19 years."

This photograph was taken outside of Graham's former home, 199 Bells Road, Gorleston. It was taken at the unveiling of a blue plaque dedicated to Graham's father William Adams, a famous Gorleston life saver. The photograph shows descendants of William and Ellen Adams.

This photograph appeared in the Great Yarmouth Mercury on 04 March 1916. It shows the photographs of 18 Great Yarmouth men who were "on active service." Graham is on the bottom row, 2nd from the left. Underneath is a caption which states the following in relation to Graham, "Pte. Graham Adams, 4th Norfolks (wounded at Dardanelles)."

Annotated Medal Card for Graham Adams which records the Balkans (2b) as the first theatre of war that Graham served in and his "date of entry therein" as 09 August 1915. As far as I can tell the 09 August 1915 was not his date of enlistment but rather the date that he embarked/disembarked for battle in the Dardanelles.

A cropped image of Graham from the "on active service" photographs which appeared in the Great Yarmouth Mercury on 04 March 1916.

Death Notice for Private Graham Ralph Adams as published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury on 15 June 1918.

Notice of thanks as published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury on 15 June 1918.

This image shows the three medals awarded to Private Graham Ralph Adams. From left to right; the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

This article provides the names of the 42 Great Yarmouth men who perished in the Great War and who are buried/remembered in the war cemeteries of Iraq. Iraq, formerly known as Mesopotamia, was part of the Turkish Empire before the Great War. It was by reading this article in 2003 that I first became aware that Graham Ralph Adams was in fact buried in the Baghdad (North Gate) Cemetery in Iraq. Graham's details are provided in the box on the right of the page and they matched the existing details I had for him.

This photo is a family portrait of William Adams, his wife Ellen Elizabeth (nee Durrant) and their eight children. The boy sitting in the very middle of the photo is their 5th son Graham. His sister Hannah has her arm around him. To my mind Graham looks to be about 11/12 years of age and therefore I would date this photo to approx. 1910. I feel certain that it was taken after 1907 as it appears that Hannah is wearing her wedding ring.

This article appeared in the Yarmouth Independent on 12 May 1917 & it details that the War Office had received news that Graham was now a prisoner of war.