The friends of Mr Frank Adamson, of Orepuki, will be pleased to hear that he has gained his B.A. degree, and has also been awarded the John Tinline scholarship for Senior English. Mr Adamson is an ex-pupil of the Southland High School. -Southland Times, 28/3/1913.
Scholastic. — Several changes are being made in scholastic circles in this district. At the Wairoa School, which is being raised to the status of a High School, three recent appointments have been made. For the secondary department, which we hope to see opened at the beginning of February, Mr Frank Adamson, who comes with excellent testimonials from the Southland Boys' High School and the Otago University, was selected out of 18 applicants; Miss Donnelley, of Hastings, fills a vacancy; and Miss Jeffries, from Marlborough, receives a new appointment in the school. -Otago Witness, 7/1/1914.
Letter from the Trenches.
LIEUTENANT DUTHIE'S DEATH.
PRIVATE PILLING'S EXPERIENCES. (excerpt)
We remained in that part of the district for about ten days, the most of our time being spent in entrenching during the night, and sleeping us much as possible during the daytimes. Our company was in the firing line for a few days, in a position where we came under fire of the enemy, out where the enemy kept a terrific but futile fire over our trenches. We put m a bayonet charge one night, and it was during that charge that Frank Adamson (a fellow-student of Private Pulling's and M.A. of Otago University) went under. -Bruce Herald, 19/7/1915.
No further word has been received regarding the fate of Mr Frank Adamson, of Orepuki. He took part in a night charge against the Turks on Gallipoli Peninsula, and was never seen again by his comrades after the enemy’s trench was reached. It is uncertain whether he was killed or taken prisoner. Mr Adamson left New Zealand with a batch of reinforcements for Egypt as Sergeant, but resigned his stripes to go to the front. -Western Star, 17/8/1915.
A LETTER FROM GALLIPOLI
THIS SOLDIER'S LIFE.
THE SIGHTS OF A NEW COUNTRY.
WONDERFUL MILITARY ACTIVITY.
THE LANDING AT GABA TEPE. (excerpt)
Shortly after this at dusk we had our real baptism of fire and that by shrapnel. For perhaps an hour, perhaps less, till dark we lay unprotected from the burst of the stuff directly over and in front of us. Shrapnel you know bursts in the air and discharges from a case innumerable pellets which pepper an area of 200 yards by 20 wide. It has great searching power, and one is never quite sure when one is safe from it. We think very little of it now, but for days after we landed we had a most wholehearted fear of it. That first experience of it was one of the worst we’ve had. There would be a blinding flash overhead, a crashing report, and then the whistle of pellets. If directly under the burst one is comparatively safe as the burst is forward and downward. We lost several in that shelling. At dark it stopped. They never fire after dark as the flash betrays their batteries, and we crawled in one of the hollows we had scratched in the ground and entrenched. All firing stopped except for spasmodic bursts. Entrenched three times that night. First of all when I awoke from the nightmare found myself near Frank Adamson, and together we excavated. Later we were shifted into our correct places in sections and I mined near Podge. Later still was detailed for picquet and dug a place at the end of our line. Here we spent a fairly good night. -Southland Times, 27/9/1915.
SERGEANT ADAMSON
Sergeant Frank Forrester Adamson, who is now reported as killed in action at the Dardanelles on May 2, was the fifth son of Mrs J. Adamson, Orepuki. He received his primary education at the Orepuki Public School. Gaining a Southland Education Board's scholarship, he entered the Southland Boys' High School and continued his studies there with success, almost gaining the honour of dux before he left. He was successful in gaining a junior university scholarship, and entered the Otago University to further pursue his studies, afterwards gaining a senior University as well as the Tinline scholarship for English. Success followed him, and he gained the diploma of B.A., and. afterwards M.A. At the time of enlisting he was 22 years of age, and was teaching in the Ashburton High School. -Otago Daily Times, 8/2/1916.
Frank Adamson's death was arrived at as the verdict of a Court of Enquiry - one of many - held in early 1916 in Egypt. He has no known grave.
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