Corporal John Hawthorne Adair, 15264, 10th (Service) Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, killed in action during an enemy bombardment 4th October, 1916.
Son of William and the late Jane Adair née Thompson, stepson of Matilda Adair née Henderson, of 32 Governor Road, Londonderry. Deceased was eighteen years of age, and is interred in Pond Farm Cemetery, Belgium. Grave Ref. C. 11.
Corporal William Adair enlisted September, 1914, entering the theatre of war 5th October, 1915, entitling him to the trio of medals, 1914-15 Star, British War, and Victory medal. Corporal Adair was posthumously awarded the Ulster Division Gallantry Certificate for his bravery on 1st July, 1916.
Corporal William Adair is locally commemorated on the Christ Church (Londonderry) Church of Ireland memorial tablet, and commemorated on the City of Londonderry War Memorial.
The Londonderry Sentinel reported:-
Mr. William Adair, 32, Governor-road, has received intimation from Rev. Alexander Spence, that his son, Corporal J. Adair, of the Inniskillings (Ulster Division), was instantaneously killed by a trench mortar shell while in the trenches. A letter has also come from Rev. J. G. Paton, Presbyterian chaplain, and deceased’s major, in a sympathetic letter, writes:- ” I do not know a braver soldier in our battalion. He had played a heroic part a few nights before in the enemy’s trenches, when we captured a machine gun. He was specially commended by the officer in charge.”
The 10th Inniskillings War Diary reads:-
Oct 4 – The Bosch started the stuff again this afternoon. He blew up one of our Lewis Gun Teams, killed one man + wounding another. 2nd Lt. Montgomery got shell-shock and was sent down to hospital.
Oct 4. 8.15 p.m.- The Bosch gave our lines a fierce bombardment for one hour with trench mortars – shrapnel + H.E. . . 2nd Lt. Beale and one man were killed in the support line. Our trenches were completely blocked in some place, no communication direct being possible between the two front company’s.
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The three men killed were, Second-Lieutenant Oscar Child Beale, Private John Milliken Woodend, and Private John Hawthorne Adair, the three are laid beside each other in graves C. 10. C. 11. and C. 12.
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