Born 9 February 1884 at Ashburton, Devon, the only son of James Adams (1850-1937), FRCS, of Eastbourne, and his wife Annie Pewsy. His uncle, John Adams (1851-1938), and a cousin, Josiah Oake Adams (1842-1925), were also Fellows of the College. J W Adams was educated at Tonbridge School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took second-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part I, 1906. He took his clinical training at St Bartholomew's, where he served as house surgeon, and distinguished himself in the hospital's football XV, "Bill" Adams' prowess being long remembered. He served as house surgeon at St Mark's Hospital for Diseases of the Rectum, and entered the colonial medical service in 1913. Adams was posted to Malacca, but later removed to Penang, Straits Settlement, where he ultimately became senior surgeon and practised at 11 Barrack Road. He then served for a short time at Singapore, and retired just before the outbreak of the second world war, thus narrowly escaping the disaster of February 1942, when Singapore surrendered to the Japanese and was held by them for three and a half years. On coming home to England Adams settled at Three Trees, Great Gransden, Sandy, Bedfordshire. He married in 1913, the year in which he joined the colonial service, Irene, youngest daughter of James Appleyard, MD, JP, of Longford, Tasmania. His health was impaired in the east and he died suddenly at his home, of coronary thrombosis, on 26 January 1946, survived by his wife and two children, a married daughter and a son, Captain Anthony Wilmot Adams, MC, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.