210903 Pte William Adey British Army 8th Btn. South Staffordshire Regiment from:Willenhall Pte William Adey, my great grandfather, had already served in the 4th Militia S.Staffords, in the Boer war. Born in 1875 he joined as part of K2 in 1914 or 15 at the tender age of 39. Home life can`t have been good! He was posted to the 8th South Staffords; a service battalion. He was wounded a couple of times. On one occasion he was granted leave and upon arriving home had all his uniform stripped off by his wife Gertrude and the lice removed from it. He went upstairs and collapsed asleep. Upon waking he came downstairs and looked as white as a sheet. He had had a nightmare concerning an event which happened on the front line. Some of the younger soldiers were kicking a German head around like a football. He remonstrated with them when one of them picked the head up and threw it at him. He automatically caught it, only to drop it again pretty quickly. He had dreamt that he was in his bed (which he was) and the dead headless German was standing at the foot of the bed demanding to know where his head was. He survived the war. My father reckons he was probably shell-shocked because the immediate family used to put him on the veranda at the back of the house in Willenhall and leave him. He was considered to be "embarassing". He died in the mid 1950s. I never knew him, but wish I had.
My grandfather told me a little, and one story was that at one point casualties were so high that the colonel was 23. He also mentioned that he thought William was a sniper, and considered one of the steadier men in the battalion. I`ll never know. Sadly I have no photos of him in WW1.
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