Born on 20 April 1879, second son of George Edward D'Arcy Adams, MD Aberdeen, who practised at 1 Clifton Gardens, Maida Vale, London, W, and his wife who was a sister of Robert Doyne, FRCS. He was educated at Lancing, and at Exeter College, Oxford. Here he came under the influence of his uncle Robert Doyne, of the Oxford Eye Hospital, and determined to become an ophthalmologist. Doyne also urged him to practise fencing, and he took a prominent part in the university fencing club. Adams received his clinical training at the London Hospital, and then served as clinical assistant, assistant to the surgical staff and temporary assistant surgeon at the Royal Eye Hospital. He was elected clinical assistant at the Oxford Eye Hospital in 1904, became assistant surgeon in 1905, at the end of which year he took the Fellowship, and after graduating in medicine, surgery and ophthalmology at Oxford he was elected surgeon to the hospital, a post which he held till 1941. He was elected ophthalmic surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1912, and was Margaret Ogilvie Reader in Ophthalmology in the university 1913-1941 in succession to Robert Doyne. Adams was a founder member of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress, which his uncle had launched, and took a prominent part in promoting it. He was master of the congress 1926-28 and deputy master 1929-42. He delivered the Middlemore lecture in 1919 and the Robert Doyne memorial lecture in 1931. He was vice-president of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom 1931-32, and president of the section of ophthalmology at the Royal Society of Medicine 1944-45. Adams was appointed consulting surgeon to the eye hospital and consulting ophthalmic surgeon to the infirmary on retiring in 1941; he gave up his private practice in 1946, and left Oxford to settle at The Old Rectory, Theberton, near Leiston, Suffolk. Adams was married twice: (1) in 1900 to Marjorie, daughter of the Rev A C Smith, Vicar of St Michael's Church, Oxford; Mrs Adams died in 1924 leaving a son and two daughters; (2) in 1929 to Helen Stewart, only child of Frederick W Weller-Poley, who survived him. Adams died on 9 February 1948, aged 68, at Theberton and was buried there. His recreations besides fencing and motoring were in painting, reading and photography. Publications: *Pathology of the eye*. Oxford, 1912. The influence of vascular disease in the retina on the prognosis as regards life. *Brit J Ophthal*. 1917, 1, 161. Arterio-sclerosis and the eye (Richard Middlemore lecture, Birmingham, 1919). *Brit J Ophthal*. 1920, 4, 297.