The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2562) Private John Adams, 20th Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (2562) Private John Adams, 20th Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2562 Private John Adams, 20th Infantry Battalion, AIF
KIA 26th July 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private John Adams.

John Adams was born on 15 February 1894 in Tumbarumba, New South Wales, the son of travelling salesman William Adams and his wife Martha. John was one of nine children in his family and received his education at Tumbarumba Public School. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, he was working as a farm labourer near Cootamundra.

John Adams enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 25 July 1915, along with his older brother, George. The brothers underwent training in Sydney and were assigned to the 20th Battalion. They embarked from Sydney aboard the troopship Euripides at the beginning of November. They arrived in Egypt in February 1916 and spent a month training with their battalion before embarking for France in March.

The brother’s first major action with their battalion on the Western Front took place around the French village of Pozieres in July 1916. The German forces had a distinct advantage, holding the high ground which enabled them to launch devastating attacks on advancing troops. The weight of artillery fire razed entire villages to the ground and made capturing the strategic village a treacherous and seemingly impossible task.

The offensive at Pozieres took place over 42 days. The Australians made as many as 19 separate attacks against German positions, finally succeeding in capturing Pozieres on 5 August, but not without tremendous cost. By the end of the battle, there were 23,000 Allied casualties, captured, wounded or killed. Among the dead was 23-year-old Private John Adams.

Adams’ company was undertaking a raid on German lines on 25 July when he was hit while crossing no man’s land. He was severely wounded in the chest, and his comrades moved him to a shell hole to shield him during their advance. The following morning when the dead and wounded were being retrieved, Private Adams could not be found. That same day, his brother George was awarded the Military Medal for his role in leading a bombing party further up the line.

Adams’ father William pleaded with military authorities to provide him with information on his boy. Although the young private seemed to have vanished without trace, the Red Cross investigated and concluded that he had been killed during the raid on 26 July 1916. Adams’ comrade recalled the night he was killed, saying:

“I saw Adams shot through the lung and lying on the ground midway between our trenches and the German’s trenches at Pozieres. Our Lieutenant said to leave him as it was useless to remove him.”

The tremendous shelling which took place around Pozieres left little hope of locating Private Adams alive, nor the location of his final resting place. His body was never recovered from the battlefield, and today he is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux Memorial along with more than ten thousand Australians who have no known grave. When his father William died in 1922, John’s name was added to his headstone, a permanent memorial to his boy who never came home.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private John Adams, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meghan Adams
Researcher