|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte William Adey
British Army 8th Btn. South Staffordshire Regiment
from:Willenhall
Pte William Adey, my great grandfather, had already served in the 4th Militia S.Staffords, in the Boer war. Born in 1875 he joined as part of K2 in 1914 or 15 at the tender age of 39. Home life can`t have been good! He was posted to the 8th South Staffords; a service battalion.
He was wounded a couple of times. On one occasion he was granted leave and upon arriving home had all his uniform stripped off by his wife Gertrude and the lice removed from it. He went upstairs and collapsed asleep. Upon waking he came downstairs and looked as white as a sheet. He had had a nightmare concerning an event which happened on the front line. Some of the younger soldiers were kicking a German head around like a football. He remonstrated with them when one of them picked the head up and threw it at him. He automatically caught it, only to drop it again pretty quickly. He had dreamt that he was in his bed (which he was) and the dead headless German was standing at the foot of the bed demanding to know where his head was.
He survived the war. My father reckons he was probably shell-shocked because the immediate family used to put him on the veranda at the back of the house in Willenhall and leave him. He was considered to be "embarassing". He died in the mid 1950s. I never knew him, but wish I had. My grandfather told me a little, and one story was that at one point casualties were so high that the colonel was 23. He also mentioned that he thought William was a sniper, and considered one of the steadier men in the battalion. I`ll never know. Sadly I have no photos of him in WW1.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
