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1916-1926 (Creation)
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6.5 cm of textual records. – 217 pp. (95 items).
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Biographical history
Albert Ernest Adams was born in Toronto on 12 July 1898. His father was Ernest Albert Adams, a bread wagon driver, and his mother was Sarah Heighes. Lying about his age in order to fight in the First World War, Adams volunteered with the 134th Battalion on 27 January 1916, after seven months served already as a private with the 48th Highlanders. By June 1916, while training at Camp Niagara, he received word that his parents had separated. Subsequently, after a short period at Camp Borden, Adams departed for England, arriving by the beginning of August 1916.
He trained at Aldershot and was then assigned to Camp Witley in Surrey as an instructor in musketry, earning the nickname "Babe" for being the youngest sergeant. Later, in March 1917, he took a machine gun course. One year later, in March 1918, he was transferred to 3rd Canadian Machine Gun Battalion, No. 1 Company, training briefly at the Canadian depot at Searford before shipping off to France within the month. He survived the battle of Amiens in August, but on 24 September 1918 a German aircraft dropped a bomb on the A and C batteries of No. 1 Company, killing over 30 men including Adams. He was buried in Wanquetin Communal Cemetery Extension at Pas de Calais, France.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of correspondence with four enclosures and two newspaper clippings. Correspondence amounts to 77 letters by Albert E. Adams to his mother Sarah (Heighes) Adams and one letter to his sister Elsie Adams. Enclosures consist of British propaganda literature to be dropped over German lines, two humourous military publications by Pte. W. Silk, and a battalion Christmas card, in which are listed all officers of the 134th Battalion, including Adams. One newspaper clipping concerns his death, taken from the Toronto Star of 8 October 1918. The other clipping, from an unknown source dated 26 August 1926, concerns the battle of Arras-Cambrai, in which Adams died.
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Fonds (46-2007) was acquired from Alexander Books in December 2007.
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Further accruals are not expected.
