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OBITUARY

In memoriam: Maxwell Adams

Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries 11:6, (1921) p.193.

by

The Editors

Prepared by Michael Steer

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IN MEMORIAM: MAXWELL ADAMS. It is with very great regret that we have to record the death of Mr Maxwell Richard William Peers Adams, barrister-at-law, at Southsea on 7th January last. From 1908-1919 he was one of the editors of this publication, and from 1900 to his death honorary secretary of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art.

He was for many years in the Telegraph Department of the Indian Civil Service. He was 72 years of age, and was the eldest son of General Henry Augustus Adams of the Indian Army.

After his retirement he lived for some years at Wolborough House, Newton Abbot, and gave his attention to the history, archaeology and bibliography of the county, becoming a member of the Teign Naturalist's Field Club as well as of the Devonshire Association. As honorary secretary of the latter he did splendid work and carried out his duties in a thoroughly painstaking manner and with much skill and enthusiasm.

In 1900 at the second meeting at Totnes, he was appointed joint secretary with Mr J Brooking- Rowe, one of the founders of this journal. On the death of Mr Brooking-Rowe he was joined by Mr Robert Burnard. It is a coincidence that Mr Adams became a secretary at Totnes in 1900, and, at the meeting in the same town in 1920 he acted as such for the last time. He acted as editor of the annual Transactions of the Devonshire Association with marked ability, and carefully complied an index of each volume. His genial manner, his devotion to the concern of the Association, and his hard work in its interests, endeared him to the members. At the close of the Totnes meeting he was asked by the Council to be President in 1922.

The funeral took place at Milton Cemetery. Portsmouth on 11th January.

After each meeting of the Devonshire Association it was his custom to visit and thank all local people who had helped to make the meeting a success, or if unable to see them, he sent a letter of thanks. His loss will be very much felt by all his friends, and especially by those with whom he was associated in the Devonshire Association and the Teign Naturalists' Field Club, and by his co-editors of this journal. EDS.