PRIVATE CHARLES F. ADAMS, #404785

PRIVATE CHARLES FREDERICK ADAMS, 20TH BATTALION

 

Today, I received in the mail from Library and Archives Canada, two sets of photocopied services records on men for whom I recently purchased WWI Victory Medals. This in spite of the continued slowdown due to a fire and seasonal volume at LAC. Both men served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and both men lost their lives in the war. I intend to blog both men's profiles, as I intend to do with many more: they are respectively Pte. Charles F. Adams, #404785, 20th Battalion and Pte. Cecil Charles Jones, #1669, 5th. Field Ambulance.

Private Charles Frederick Adams, #404785, 20th Battalion

Charles Adams was a 24-year old single salesman, living with his parents at 64 Rosemount Ave., in Toronto when he enlisted with the 35th Overseas Battalion in Toronto on May 13, 1915. In his will, he left his estate to his mother, Elizabeth, but also $100.00 to "my fiancee, Miss Vera Reaman, 6 Humewood Ave., Toronto". He had been serving in the 2nd Queen's Own Rifles militia since the year's beginning and was probably hoping at some point to meet up with the 3rd (Toronto) Battalion in France, because of this affiliation, however he ended up being sent to the city's 20th Battalion as a reinforcement March 16, 1916.

The Circumstances of Death card in his service file describes his Death From Wounds on June 6, 1916 as follows: "Billeted in Dikebusch. At about 7:00 PM on June 9th, 1916, a shell struck the billet wounding Private Adams (and several other men) on the hip and in the stomach. He died of his wounds received in action June 10, 1916".

Private Charles Frederick Adams is laid to rest in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium. He has a visible presence on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.