Captain, "A" Company, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in action 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 Guildhall and Cambridge, St Faith's School

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.”

From Andy Pay's research into the Marquis de Ruvigny' s Roll of Honour the following:

Volume 1, Part 1, Page 218. LAIDLAW, Charles Glass Playfair. Private, number 3375, D Company, 1/14th ( the London Scottish ) The London Regiment ( TF ). 5th son of the late Dr Robert Laidlaw, M.D., F.R.C.S.E.,sometime medical Government Officer in the Seychelle Islands, by his wife, Elizabeth ( Woodside, Grantchester Meadows, Cambridge ), dau of Patrick Playfair of Ardmillan, co Ayr.

Born Stoke Newington, London N, 13-12-1887, Educated the Purse school, Cmbridge, from which in 1906 he was elected to an entrance scholarship for natural science at St Johns college. At school he was football captain, sergeant in the cadet corps, a member of the cricket team and head of the school. While still at school he played water polo for the university when the team was one short. Later he played lacrosse for his college and sometimes for the university.

He commenced residence in Oct 1907 , he obtained a first class in part 1of the Natural Science tripos in 1909 and in june of that year was elected a foundation scholar of the College. He took the second part of the tripos in 1910 obtaining a first class for Botany.

In june 1911 he was elected a Hutchinson student of the college, and took up research in Plant Physiology at the Botany schoolof the University, under the direction of Mr.F.F.Blackman, the university reader in Botany.

The subject of his research was an electrical method of determining carbon dioxide in relation to photo-synthesis. In 1912 he was elected by the governing body of Gonville and Caius College to a Frank Smart Studentship, a recognition of the promising nature of his investigations. At the same time he was offered a research scholarship by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, after some hesitation he accepted the latter offer, which necessitated his removal to London. From the autumn of 1912, until the outbreak of war, Laidlaw worked at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, under the direction of Prof. V.H.Blackman . Here he entered an investigation of the Physiological conditions of plants forced under glass, working also at the effect on temperature on the rate of growth of a fungus, Sclerotinia Libutiana.

On the outbreak of war he volunteered and joined the London Scottish as a Private 21-10-1914, and after a period of training, embarked at Southampton with a draft of some 600 officers and men for the 1st Battalion , 10-3-1915.

On good friday (2-4-1915) , his (D) Coy were in some barricades at Richebourg l'Avoue, south of Neuve Chapelle. After having been in the trenches all night , he was smoking after breakfast in what seemed a perfectly safe place, when a stray bullet passed through a sandbag and penetrated the right side of his chest. To his comrades the wound seemed a slight one, and after first aid was given , he was removed to number 3 Field ambulance, near Bethune. There it was discovered that internal haemorrage had set in, and he died in the early hours of the morning on 3rd April 1915, and was buried in Bethune Cemetery.

From Andy Pay's research into the Marquis de Ruvigny' s Roll of Honour the following:

Volume 2, Part 4, Page 212 -

TILLEY, John - Captain, 7th (Service) Battalion, The Norfolk Regiment. Only son of Arthur Tilley, of 2, Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge, Fellow and lecturer of Kings College, Cambridge, by his wife, Margaret, dau.of John Alan Chutton-Brock; Born Cambridge 5th Oct. 1895; educated at Fonthill School and Marlborough College, and had entered Kings College, Cambridge; was gazetted 2nd Lieut. 26th Aug. 1914; promoted Lieutenant the following Dec, and Captain in Aug.1915; served with The Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders; was wounded on 3rd July, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, and sent home to England on sick leave, on his recovery rejoined his Regiment 6th Nov, and was killed in action near Arras, 28th Nov. 1916. Buried there. His Commanding Officer wrote: "We shall all miss him most terribly, and personally, in addition to losing in him , my best Company Commander, I am also losing a very dear friend." And the Adjutant: " Ever since he joined the Battalion he was beloved by both officers and men." A brother officer also wrote: "He was one of the best fellows that ever stepped, and one of the bravest." Unm.

1939 – 1945