William Adams, born in Buckinghamshire, was the son of Horace and Elizabeth Adams, of Attercliffe, Sheffield, and served with 1st (Airborne) Battalion, The Border Regiment, during World War II.Cpl Adams took part in 1st British Airborne Division’s airborne assault to capture the Rhine crossings at Arnhem during Operation Market Garden attached to 1st Airlanding Brigade Headquarters, and died during the defence of Oosterbeek. 

He may have been killed with Sgt Willis who set out with a PIAT in order to knock out a German tank in the Kneppelhoutweg-Benedendorpsweg area of Oosterbeek.

Cpl Adams died on 24 September 1944, aged 21 years, and is believed to have been given a field burial near the junction of Sandersweg and Kneppelhoutweg. He is now buried in the Oosterbeek War Cemetery, nr Arnhem.

Headstone photograph courtesy of Ab Ringma.