Adamson F D Lt 2nd Border Regiment
Lieutenant FRANCIS DOUGLAS ADAMSON,
2nd Border Regiment, was the second son of the Rov. C. E. Adamson. O.D., Rector of Houghton-le-Spring, and was born in 1891. He entered the School House in September, 1906; he played in the XV. in 1908 and 1909, and in the XI. in 1910. He left the School in July, 1910, for St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he played in his College XV., and took his degree in 1913. He was admitted a student of the Inner Temple, but on the outbreak of war enlisted in the 21st (Public Schools’ Battalion) Royal Fusiliers. Being offered a permanent commission in the Regular Army, he went to the R.M.C., Sandhurst, and was gazetted to the 2nd Battalion of the Border Regiment on the 17th March, 1915. He proceeded to France in June, and became Regimental Grenade Officer. He passed through the Battle of Loos without hurt, but six weeks later, when his Battalion was being relieved and had left the trenches, he had to return to give the relieving Bombing Officer the necessary information regarding the whereabouts of the bomb store. On his way back to his Battalion he was hit by either a sniper or a stray bullet. Death was instantaneous, and he was buried on the 17th November, the day after his death, in the Guards Cemetery at Windy Corner, Givenchy.
Source : The War Record Of Old Dunelmians 1914-1919
ADAMSON, FRANCIS DOUGLAS, B.A., Lieut.. 2nd Battn. (55th Foot) The Border Regt., 2nd s. of the Rev. Cuthbert Edward Adamson, M.A., Rector of Houghton-le-Spring, co. Durham, and Rural Dean, by his wife, Clara Isabel, dau. of P. Haggie; b. South Wesloe Vicarage, South Shields, co. Durham, 8 Oct. 1891; educ. South Shields High School, Durham School, St. John’s College, Cambridge (graduated B.A. 1913), and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; entered the Middle Temple with a view to being called to the Bar, but on the outbreak of war in 1914, enlisted in the Public Schools Battn. of the Royal Fusiliers, from which he was selected for a course at Sandhurst, and was gazetted 2nd Lieut. to the Border Regt., 17 March, 1915, and promoted Lieut. 15 Aug. following; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, and was killed in action near Givenchy, 16 Nov. 1915. Buried in the Guards’ Cemetery there. A brother officer wrote to his father: “I have always admired your son, as we all did. In losing him the regiment has lost one of its bravest and most promising of young officers;” unm.
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 2