WW1 East Surreys connection Jamaica

[delphine]

I have just located my great-uncle Sidney Arthur ADAMS (b 1886, Shoreditch) in 2nd Bn East Surrey Regt. He married in Burma in 1911 as a sergeant; in 1911 census was still stationed in Burma; in 1916 sailed, as a Sergeant-major, E Surreys, to Jamaica in company with 9 privates of the West Indies Regt. , and his family (wife, 2 children, aged 4 and 2, born Burma) He and family returned to UK a year later, still E Surreys. No trace of the man since. Wife is in 1939 Register in Tottenham, married, occupation ARP Warden. Although the children married, I find no descendants.
No service record on line, on either source; no death traced. Could he have returned to the colours for WW2, or have been demobbed later than the cut-off date for accessible service records?
All I can think of is to get a marriage cert for one of the children which may have a clue in father's occupation. Any comments/ideas welcome.

[Sandyhall]

We would like some names please.
1. wife
2 children
3 do you have his parents names etc

[Lesley Robertson]

Did you check the Commonwealth War Graves site?
If he returned to the UK in 1916 as an active soldier, he must surely (health allowing) ended up somewhere in WW1.

[Sandyhall]

Is this his marriage

India, Select Marriages, 1792-1948
Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish
Name Sidney Arthur Adams
Spouse Emily Ada Samuels
Father Benjamin Adams
Birth 1887
Marriage 06/01/1911 Rangoon, Bengal, India

Could this be his death
Sydney A Adams
Death Age 77
Birth Date abt 1886
Registration Date Sep 1963
Registration district Hove
Inferred County Sussex
Volume 5h, Page 418

[Sandyhall]

Another one

Name Emily Ada Adams
Death Date 13 Jan 1965
Death Place Middlesex, England
Probate Date 19 Mar 1965
Registry London, England

Probate to her son Sidney Henry


1911 censue
Emily Ada Adams - Married
Age in 1911: 24
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1887
Gender: Female
Birth Place: London Islington
County/Island: Military
Country: England
Registration District Number: 641
ED, institution, or vessel: Burma and Andaman Islands
Piece: 34979

[Megan Roberts]

Is this his marriage


Could this be his death
Sydney A Adams
Death Age 77
Birth Date abt 1886
Registration Date Sep 1963
Registration district Hove
Inferred County Sussex
Volume 5h, Page 418

If that's his death, and it could well be, then he was living in Hove in 1939 apparently married to an Elizabeth. The best way to verify whether or not this is the correct Sydney Arthur Adams would be to purchase his birth certificate (1886 July Quarter Shoreditch Volume 1C Page 42 available from the GRO as a PDF for £6 ) and compare the birth date to the one given on the 1939 Register for the gentleman living in Hove, which was 26 May 1886.

[delphine]

Thanks to everyone for answering.
The wife I have is indeed Emily Ada Samuels and in the 1939 Register she describes herself as married not as a widow.
I had wondered about the Hove death, however. I have Sidney's baptism which gives his birth date as 21 May 1886.
I believe that his wife died in the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham on 13 Jan 1965, basing that on her address in the 1939 and her executor being her son Sidney Henry Adams (b Shwebo, Myanmar 28 Jan 1912- d London N17 5 Apr 1974).
The other child was a daughter Marguerite Emily b Shwebo 17 Sep 1913, married to John M Ferguson in Watford in 1936, died Esher Q3 1963. It was her marriage cert I was thinking of getting, to see what she says about her father's occupation/decease.
There are other Sidney A Adams of similar age in the records, e.g. one who was in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, but his regiment was the Buffs (Kent) and you can't be married and in Chelsea, I believe. I did check the CWG, but thanks for the suggestion.
His voyage out to Jamaica was 19 Aug 1916, returning 15 Dec 1917, with family - I have wondered what he was doing there - recruiting? No soldiers with him on the way back. In both instances, the vessel was an Elder Fyffes banana boat.
His parents were Benjamin George Adams (1841-1916, a butcher/slaughterman) and Mary Ann Bailey (1845ish - 1909). Sidney was with his mother in 1901, working as an errand boy, his father being apart from the family and in Islington workhouse.

[Megan Roberts]

There is only one birth registration for a Sidney Arthur Adams in 1886, although there are others for those without a middle name.

The coincidence of the two Sidney Arthur Adams being apparently born within 5 days of one another is huge, and makes me think it likely that they were the same person.

This was an age when divorce was neither common nor acceptable and it wasn't unknown for people to move away to a new area where they were not known and start a new life. That does not necessarily mean that he was a bigamist ; he and the lady called Elizabeth may just have been living together and representing themselves as married.

[delphine]

Off to order the pdf of the Hove death cert. I agree that this would be a big coincidence.

[delphine]

Death Certificate arrived today. Sydney Arthur Adams aged 77, retired handyman, died of Myocardial degeneration & atherosclerosis at 39 Clarendon Rd, Hove on 23 Sept 1963. Informant E Adams, present at death. Given that the 1939 Register has Sidney (sic) living with Elizabeth Adams & his occupation as Gen Labourer in receipt of a Regular Army Pansion, I guess this is my great uncle and the scenario is as Megan suggests, with his legal wife unaware of his location but knowing she is still married.
That just leaves the mystery of what he might have been doing in Jamaica; how a sergeant major of the East Surreys became involved with the WI Regiment; how he ended up in Hove.
But I can't have everything.
Thanks again to everyone who helped.