THE LORD ASHCROFT VC COLLECTION HAS ACQUIRED THE VICTORIA CROSS AND CAMPAIGN MEDALS AWARDED TO THE REVEREND JAMES ADAMS, BENGAL ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT. |
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22 December 2017 |
The Lord Ashcroft VC Collection has acquired the Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to The Reverend James Adams, Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, ( Chaplain, Kabul Field Force ). Interestingly, The Reverend James Adams was not an official Army Chaplain who had been commissioned as an officer and this makes his award of the Victoria Cross even more unique. The James Adams VC group will go on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery housed in the Imperial War Museum, London.
For the award of the Victoria Cross [ London Gazette, 26 August 1881 ], Killa Kazi, Afghan War, Afghanistan, 11 December 1879, The Reverend James William Adams, Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, Indian Army.
During the action at Killa Kazi, on the 11th December 1879, some men of the 9th Lancers having fallen, with their horses, into a wide and deep "nullah" or ditch, and the enemy being close upon them, the Reverend J.W. Adams rushed into the water ( which filled the ditch ), dragged the horses from off the men upon whom they were lying, and extricated them, he being at the time under a heavy fire, and up to his waist in water.
James Adams was invested with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on the 1st December 1881.
James Adams died on the 20th October 1903 and is buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Ashwell, Rutland. |
Iain Stewart, 22 December 2017