Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the many family members, friends and professional historians and archivists who have assisted me in various ways whilst writing this blog.

• The late Arthur Parker Adams, who kept the letters and papers and memorabilia of his two younger brothers who gave their lives in WW1, and to Arthur's son...
• The late Harold John Parker Adams, who kept these archives after Arthur died in 1955 until his own death in 2007.
• James Renwick and other members of my family - for their patience and encouragement.
• Harold and George Clapham who shared WW1 photos and photographed other memorabilia for me to upload onto the blog.
• Dizzy Carlyon who provided a silver napkin ring which belonged to Athol G. Adams.
• Charlie and Annie Maslin for their encouragement and support.
• David A J Parker (keeper of the Parker family archives).
• The Melbourne Grammar School.
• Philip Powell, Wesley College, Melbourne (archives and history).
• David Perkins, The Australian Society of World War 1 Aero Historians.
• The Australian War Memorial.
• The Australian National Archives.
• The Melbourne Cricket Club.
• Athol Clapham (nee Adams) who shared her memories and stories of her father, AP Adams.

SMPR

26 February 2017

This is the last Blog Post

Thank you for following Athol's story

"Their hearts felt out to hold me"

The grave of Lieutenant A.G. Adams AFC

Hadra War Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt

 2006

For nearly a century no one from the family visited Athol's grave. Like many other families of WW1 soldiers their grief was compounded by the fact that the departed soldier's grave was so far from home. Even these days a long-haul flight from Australia to Egypt is not possible for most families of lost diggers. Athol's mother, Adah, did not travel to Egypt to see her son's grave, nor did his step-father, Guy Sherwood. Nor did the aunts May and Puff. Nor did Arthur, the last of the four Adams boys.

It was not until 2006 that a member of the family made the pilgrimage to Alexandria to visit the grave. Harold Adams made that journey - he was the youngest of Arthur's children. He too served our country in uniform - with the Royal Australian Navy from 1946-1983. I accompanied him to Egypt when he was 73 years of age about a year before he died.

CDRE Harold Adams AM RAN Ret'd (and SMPR) at Athol's grave, Alexandria, Egypt, 2006

Harold wore his Melbourne Grammar School old boys' tie and said prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. A wreath was laid - all dried plant materials collected from Victoria, NSW and NT of Australia: Banksia cones, Eucalyptus leaves and nuts, Hakea cones and Casuarina cones. Harold presented the local Egyptian gardeners with memento badges from the Australian War Memorial and thanked them for tending the graves so well.

The posy of Australian native plant materials collected in Victoria, Northern Territory, and NSW

The long wait for the family to visit Athol's grave, for nearly 100 years, was too long for those left behind as well as the brave lads which had passed out of the sight of men. My friend Annie remembered this poem when we talked about Athol.

The Day My Family Came – by Michael Edwards

I half awoke to a strange new calm
And a sleep that would not clear
For this was the sleep to cure all harm
And which freezes all from fear.

Shot had come from left and right
With shrapnel, shell and flame
And turned my sunlit days to night
Where now, none would call my name.

Years passed me by as I waited,
Missed the generations yet to come,
Sadly knew I would not be fated
To be a father, hold a son.

I heard again the sounds of war
When twenty years of sleep had gone,
For five long years, maybe more,
Till peace once more at last had come.

More years passed, new voices came,
The stones and trenches to explore,
But no-one ever called my name
So I wished and waited ever more.

Each time I thought, perhaps, perhaps,
Perhaps this time they must call me,
But they only called for other chaps,
No-one ever called to set me free.

Through years of lonely vigil kept,
To look for me they never came,
None ever searched or even wept,
Nobody stayed to speak my name.

Until that summer day I heard
Some voices soft and strained with tears,
Then I knew that they had come
To roll away those wasted years.

Their hearts felt out to hold me,
Made me whole like other men,
But they had come just me to see,
Drawing me back home with them.

Now I am at peace and free to roam
Where ‘ere my family speak my name,
That day my soul was called back home
For on that day my family came.

Reference: http://anzacalbany.com.au/visitors-ww1-poem/

l 

'That day my soul was called back home'

It was Harold's idea that this story be called 'Not Mentioned in Dispatches'.

Much later - Photograph and letter Harold O. Smith

Harold O. Smith, who appears to have served with Athol at Aboukir at the School of Military Aeronautics, wrote this thoughtful letter in March 1920 - three years after Athol was killed. I do not have a copy of this letter, but found it with the National Archives of Australian among Athol's Service Record. A copy of this letter and the accompanying photograph must have been sent to Athol's mother as I have the photograph he refers to in my records. The photograph is annotated on the reverse and I include an image of this in this post. The Australian Army's Base Records reply is also provided.

72 Savernake Road
Hampstead
London NW3
March 13th 1920

To Officer in Base Records
Department of Defence, Melbourne, Australia.

Sir,

Re the Late Lieut. Athol Gladwyn Adams 5th Battalion AIF and Australian Air Force

I am sending herewith a photograph of the grave of the above mentioned officer, whom I believe was killed as the result of an aeroplane crash in Egypt, Feb 19th 1917, and who lies buried in Hadra Cemetery Alexandria. During my service with the 22nd Training Squadron Royal Air Force as a leading air-craftsman, 2 wreaths were periodically received, one from the Australian Welfare Fund, and the other from a Mrs Guy Sherwood and I had the privilege of taking the wreaths and, incidentally, tending the grave. On my last visit before returning home it occurred to me to snapshot the grave and have now had same enlarged and respectfully ask you to endeavour to send same to Mrs Guy Sherwood or failing, to the next of kin of Lieut A. G. Adams as I feel sure they may appreciate my action.

Hoping eventually to hear you have been successful.

I remain,
Yours respectfully,
Harold O. Smith

The photograph of Athol's Grave - dated about 1918.

The annotation on the reverse of the photograph.

The Army's reply to Mr Smith saying that they have forwarded the letter and photograph to Mrs Guy Sherwood as Athol's next-of-kin.

24 February 1917 - Death Notices

Adah placed these Death Notices in the local Melbourne newspapers.

Reference: can be found via TROVE in 'The Australasian' (Melbourne, Vic.),

Saturday 3 March 1917, p.53, in the Family Notices, Died on Service section.

Reference: can be found via TROVE in 'The Argus' (Melbourne Vic.),

Saturday 24 February 1917, p.13 in the Family Notices, Died on Service section.

The text in the notices is the same for both:

'ADAMS - On the 19th February, accidentally killed on duty, Lieutenant Athol G. Adams of the Royal Flying Corps, Egypt, loved youngest son of Adah E. Sherwood and the late Alex. J. Adams, aged 22 years and 9 months, after 2 years and 6 months active service.'

British records - a little more information

I have found a copy RFC Casualty Card. An extract appears below. A little more information comes to light as we can see the aeroplane 'Avro 7989' and the nature and cause of accident being 'failing engine with nose dive'. The record also notes that Lt G.C.H. Culley was injured.

Ref: The RAF Museum http://www.rafmuseumstoryvault.org.uk/

Reply from the Army Base Records

Many months later the AIF wrote to Adah in reply to Guy Sherwood's letter asking for more information about the circumstances of Athol's death:

8 October 1917

Dear Madam,

With reference to the report of the regrettable loss of your son, the late Lieutenant A. G. Adams, 5th Battalion, seconded 67th Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, I am now in receipt of advice which shows that he died at 17th General Hospital, Alexandria, on 19/2/17, of wounds and shock following compound fracture skull, received through aeroplane accident, and was buried at Hadra New Military Cemetery, Alexandria, grave No. 3008, on 20/2/17. Chaplain W. H Harding, officiating.

The additional details are furnished by direction, it being the policy of the department to forward all information received in connexion with deaths of members of the Australian Imperial Force.

Yours faithfully,

Major

Officer i/c Base Records

February 1917 - Letters of condolence

In the Melbourne Grammar publication 'War Services Old Melburnians, 1914-1918' (compiled and edited by J. Beacham Kiddle, 1923) Athol's accident is recounted by his fellow officers:

'...the engine was heard to stop, and the machine dived from a height of about 100 feet to earth, becoming a total wreck. The pilot was not suffering much from his injuries, but Athol was unconscious, and died soon after. He was accorded a military funeral. The official enquiry resulted in a verdict of accidental death. 

'His Captain writes: "The Flying Corps have lost not only an officer popular with all he met, but one who gave promise of making a good and valuable pilot". 

'Another officer writes: "I could not have wished for a better officer; he was keen and full of zeal in all his work, and I, as well as the CO was looking forward to the time when he would join the squadron as a pilot, which would have been in a very few days but for his untimely end".'

I do not have copies of the letters referred to in this book.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the British records, in particular, the RFC unit war diaries, so I cannot set out the contemporaneous account of the accident.

From Athol's log book we do know, that at the time of the accident, there was another pilot in the plane as an instructor. That airman was Flight Lieutenant George Charles Henry Culley, RFC. I thought it might be interesting to find out a little about Athol's co-pilot, George.

George Culley was born on 25 April 1893 and educated at Norwich Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he studied law. After his studies George was articled to H. H. Cole, of Norwich. However, his studies were interrupted by the war. Like Athol, George enlisted in the first month of the war. He signed up on 24 August, 1914, as a 2nd Lieut., in the Norfolk Regiment. He was sent to Gallipoli in 1915 and gazetted Lieutenant in April 1915. In 1916 and 1917 he served in Egypt where he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. He was promoted to Captain in June 1916. That same year he joined Royal Flying Corps in September.  In 1918 he was transferred to France.

After the war George returned to the law. He passed his solicitors' Final Examination in October 1919 and was admitted to Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1920. He first practiced with Gordon Rice in Cardiff, Wales, but in 1942 enlisted again to serve in World War II in the Royal Air Force. After the war he lived at Little Shelford Cambridge until 1957. He died on 12 December 1982, aged 88.

How sad that no one from Athol's family was able to contact George to find out a little more about Athol and the fatal accident.

In 2005, George Culley's medals came up for sale at Bonhams auction house. They were sold for about £364 pounds. The sale catalogue describes the medal set as:

"1914-15 Star (Lieut. G.C.H.Culley Norf.R.); British War and Victory Medal (Capt. G.C.H.Culley. R.A.F.); 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence Medal; War Medal."

Ref: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/11927/lot/123/
and https://cms.lawgazette.co.uk/Uploads/2014/06/17/c/y/l/recordofserviceo00soli.pdf This record also notes Culley 'crashed at Aboukir, Egypt, in aeroplane Feb. 19, 1917'.

23 February 1917 - What Happened?

Athol's step-father writes to the Officer in Charge of Base Records at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. He requests the Army provide 'full particulars' concerning Athol's death.

"With reference to the report of the death of Lieut. A.G. Adams 'accidentally killed 19/2/17', can you assist me to provide full particulars? I will willingly pay for any cabling - he was in 68th (Australian) Squadron, RFC, Egypt."

February 1917 - Identity Disc

Before burial Athol's identity disc would have been recovered. This was returned to his next of kin (his mother) following normal army procedure.  The disc is a single aluminium tag which was usually worn on a chain around the neck.

Stamped on the disc are the soldier's Service Number (619), name (Adams A. G.), unit (5th Australian Infantry) and religion (Church of England).

At some stage, Adah had a jeweller make a gold case for the disc. It is kept in a little envelope which sets out the disc's journey after Athol's death. First it passed to his mother who later passed it to her sister, Marion Boothby (referred to in Athol's correspondence as Aunt May). May left it to her niece, Alison Hay, and later Alison gave it to her brother Harold Adams on 1 July 1959.

In the United States these discs are called dog tags. They were never referred to this way in the AIF.

20 February 1917 - burial

Athol's service record notes that he was buried on 20 February 1917.

 '20.2.17. Grave site 3008 Hadra New Military Cemetery, Alexandria, officiating chaplain Walter H. Harding CF, C of E.'

19 February 1917 - Service Record

Athol's service record noted that he was 'Killed aeroplane accident, Aboukir 19.2.17'. The information was conveyed to Army Records by telegram from the Aeronautics School. Subsequently, the record was updated on the next line to record that Athol 'Died result of accident, shock following compound fracture of the skull and ..., Alexandria, 19.2.17'. It appears that after the accident Athol was taken to the 17th General Hospital, Alexandria, where he died.

I do not have a copy of the telegram which would have been sent to his mother after his death.

19 February 1917 - the accident

The Pilot's Flying Log Book records more pilot training but in a different aircraft. Athol flies an Avro 504 for the first time with a Lt Culley instructing. This training flight was in aeroplane Avro 7962 on 13 February and the following day in another Avro 544 with Capt. McLean. Athol completed two landings and just over one hour flying time on these two days.

The following week Athol flies again in Avro 544 in the morning for 30 minutes with Captain MacLean but they only complete one landing. In the afternoon he goes up again with Lt Culley in the same aircraft for 30 minutes and this time they successfully complete 10 landings.

Later that same evening, at about 5:15, Athol takes off again in a different aircraft, Avro 7989, with Lt Culley. They successfully complete another 2 landings. But then The Log Book goes on to record the fatal accident: '...on the 3rd circuit and the machine dived to ground from height of about 100 feet'. This is signed by Capt L L MacLean, CO 'C' Flight, No.22 Reserve Squadron., 19.2.17.

By the time of his accident on 19 January 1917 Athol had total flying time (dual and solo) of just under 14 hours with seven and half of that total being solo flying.

AVRO 504 - the type of aircraft in which Athol died

Reference: http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/avro504.htm. Image courtesy of Brian Johannesson

8 February 1917 - Pilot's Flying Log Book

This is the third page of Athol's Log Book. It is a summary of his flying hours up until 8 February 1917.  In early February Athol had logged 11 hrs and 36 minutes in the air as a trainee pilot. The machine type is recorded as MFSH (Maurice Farman Shorthorn - image below).

Previous pages of the Log Book are signed off by JM Rickards, the commanding officer, with a simple initial. However, this page is signed by Rickards (Major, OC No.21 RS), JM Matheson (Lt, O/C 'B' Flight, Lt GCH Culley for OC 'C' Flight, and a Machburn (Major, OC No.22 RS, RFC) and that officer also stamped the record with date 8.2.17.

Maurice Farman Shorthorn

Ref: http://airsoc.com/commercialaviation

February 1917 - Pilot's Flying Log Book

Athol adds to his flying hours in late January and into the first week of February 1917.

On 27 January he is still being instructed by Lt Matheson and also by Lt Lindup (sp?) but by 28 January he is ready to take his first solo flight. At the end of the first week of February he had completed 11 hours and 36 minutes pilot training including seven and a half hours solo flying.

One of the 'remarks' in the Log Book notes that Athol crashed his right main skid on 4 February. All these flights were in Maurice Farmans with aeroplane numbers: 365, 2452, 369, 4124, 2450.

I can recommend watching this short YouTube video which shows this type of aircraft on a short flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTxBN1-EcWM

January 1917 - Pilot's Flying Log Book

These images show the cover and first page of Athol's 'Pilot's Flying Log Book'.

The Log Book sets out key information for all his flying excursions as a trainee pilot. It details the date, wind direction, machine type and number, the instructor, length of flying time and the height achieved. It also lists the number of landings and if the flights were dual control or solo.

By the end of his first week of pilot training, 19 January 1917, Athol had flown 1.5 hrs under the instruction of Lt Matheson, including 5 landings. By the end of Athol's second week (26 January 1917) he had flown an additional 2 hours with 17 landings. 

Lt Matheson and Athol flew in 2 aircraft in these sessions - Maurice Farmans with aeroplane numbers 365 and 4126.

I have found an image of one of the Maurice Farman Shorthorns being used for training on the

Royal Airforce Museum website. Ref: http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk

 Maurice Farman Shorthorn, RFC, Aboukir, Egypt, 1917 

Athol photos - mucking about in planes

These images give one an idea of what it was like to be a part of the early days of military flying in the desert. There are no notations on the photographs so I do not know dates or locations. They could be scenes of the RFC No.3 School of Military Aeronautics at Aboukir.

The first two digits are undecipherable, but the last two are '..86'. 

I think this is an Airco DH.6 type aeroplane

Probably Aboukir, early 1917.

Half a plane. When I look carefully they are smiling for the camera.

Another half a plane which seems to be loaded on a truck or rail-car.

Slouch hatted Australian getting into the pilot's seat.

I don't think he would be preparing to fly as he is not wearing pilot's gear.

The darker figure in the front is in a flying helmet.

Note the distinctive tri-colour markings on the tail so it may be an Airco DH.6

Lots of activity here. Slouch hat in the pilot's seat and other men in officer's cap, pith helmet and a few local Egyptians in the background.

Note the distinctive tri-colour markings on the tail so maybe Airco DH.6

Aeroplane 7477

This is an Airco DH.6 type aeroplane. It was designed specifically as a training plane. 

Note the gun mounted on the top of the aircraft.

If you look at this long enough you can see that this image shows a plane which has crashed into a hanger and another bi-plane.

This appears to be another photo of the above crash.

Middle East Brigade - transfer card

This is Athol's Middle East Brigade Transfer Card. Unfortunately there are no dates on the card. It seems that Athol passed the training modules for winding the Aerial, School Examination as well as Vickers and Lewis guns.

Athol photos - flying school

I have grouped these Athol-photos here as I think they were taken at the No.3 School of Military Aeronautics, Aboukir. You can see that the same sort of shed appears in the background with its distinctive camouflage on the walls of the hangers.

No notations on the reverse of the photo so I don't know the names of these people. They could be members of the AFC - some of whom brought their own 'motor-bicycles' from Melbourne.

No notations on the reverse so I do not know who they are.

These men appear to be in the middle of a class. They are wearing a range of uniforms so probably all assembled at the No.3 School of Military Aeronautics outside a hanger.

No notations on the reverse. 

No notations on the reverse.