Captain, "A" Company, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in actionn 16th September 1916. Aged 22. Son of Adela Marion Adam, M.A, of 29, Barton Rd, Cambridge, and the late James Adam, Litt.D Scholar of Winchester College, and of Balliol College, Oxford. 1st Class Honour Moderations, 1914. Buried in ACHIET-LE-GRAND COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION Pas de Calais, France. Plot IV. Row Q. Grave 12. See also Cambridge St Mark's and Cambridge St Faiths

From the Balliol College War Memorial Book, Volume 1 - Arthur Adam Innes

ARTHUR ADAM was born at Cambridge on April 25, 1894. Alike from his father Dr. James Adam, the distinguished Platonic scholar and Tutor of Emmanuel, and from his mother, a Classical Lecturer at Girton, he inherited the tradition of classical scholarship. As a boy of three he used to read Job and Jeremiah on the nursery sofa, and in July 1907, when he was elected to the senior scholarship at Winchester, the examiners noted that he “showed remarkable classical ability.” His Winchester days brought him many prizes, culminating in the Goddard Scholarship in July 1912. He came to Balliol in October of that year as the first Classical Scholar, and at the end of his first term was awarded the Warner Exhibition: in March 1914 he obtained his first in Honour Moderations, and had already made a most promising start in Greats when the war broke out.

In September he was commissioned as 2nd Lieut. In the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment. He had great fears that his eye- sight would not be good enough for Foreign Service, but he was passed in May 1915, and went to France in June to join the 1st Battalion. He was at first near Armentières and moved to the Somme in September: after a period the First Army Training School he returned to his battalion as Temporary Captain in February 1916. On September 3rd he took part in the battle near Hamel, and on the night of September 15 was reported wounded and missing or captured. No further news was ever received and it is presumed that he was killed that night.

At Balliol he was a conspicuous figure, the life and soul of his circle. Thin and wiry, with a head of exceptionally fair hair, sharp features and a rather high-pitched voice he seemed naturally to attract nick-names to his friends he was “The Mouse,” to the irreverent spirits of the Boys’ Club “Scare- crow,” and afterwards to his company “Parson Snowy” each name appropriate enough. Though he was above average as a as a classical scholar, he was never a pedant, and had quite the finer touch in composition which wins University scholarships. The classics were always literature to him, and with a deep love of Homer and Plato and Pindar he united a certain impatience of pedantic analysis. His mind was intensely versatile, and his thinking full of vitality and always connected with action. He spoke often in the Union and was deeply interested in the "social problem,” but showed his interest not so much in theorizing as in the practical work of the Boys’ Club, where he was always a favourite and had a great influence on the boys. His real passion was music he was a good amateur violinist and an enthusiastic member of the Bath Choir, but he was just as much at home at the old piano in the Boys’ Club, trying to teach an unruly audience songs from Gaudeamus. His eyesight prevented him from taking much part in games or athletics, but he was devoted to the country and loved nothing better than his rambles on reading—parties in Somerset and Wales. It was perhaps in this spirit as well as from a high sense of duty that he joined the Cavalry Squadron of the O.T.C.

The impression left by Arthur Adam on his contemporaries is one of intense vitality: he was always alert and his ready and whimsical wit and his high laugh were infectious. Below this, as his friends knew, was a deep and serious outlook on life, and an eager desire to help his generation. To them he was unique, and the impression could hardly be better summed up than in a sentence from the letter of a friend who came across him in France: “In October I met the one and only Adam at Abbeville; he was lost in his uniform and George Meredith.”