Robert Bellew Adams

Robert Bellew Adams, the son of an officer of the Corps of Guides regiment of the Indian Army, entered the Army in 1876 as a sub-lieutenant in the 12th Foot (later the Suffolk Regiment).{{London Gazette|issue=24362|page=4962|date=12 September 1876}} His promotion to lieutenant in 1878 was backdated to 1876.{{London Gazette|issue=24625|page=5174|date=17 September 1878}} He transferred to the Bengal Staff Corps in 1879,{{London Gazette|issue=24905|page=5939|date=23 November 1880}} served with his father's regiment in the Second Anglo-Afghan War and was promoted to captain in 1887.{{London Gazette|issue=25758|page=6067|date=15 November 1887}} In 1891 he was appointed to command the cavalry of the Guides. He took part in the Chitral expedition and afterwards was promoted to major in 1896{{London Gazette|issue=26795|page=6275|date=17 November 1896}} and brevet lieutenant colonel "in recognition of his services during the operations of the Chitral Relief Force, 1895."{{London Gazette|issue=26797|page=6507|date=24 November 1896}}

In 1897 the Guides took part in the Tirah campaign, and the following event took place:

{{blockquote|During the fighting at Nawa Kili, in Upper Swat, on the 17th August, 1897, Lieutenant-Colonel R.B. Adams proceeded with Lieutenants H.L.S. MacLean and Viscount Fincastle, and five men of the Guides, under a very heavy and close fire, to the rescue of Lieutenant R.T. Greaves, Lancashire Fusiliers, who was lying disabled by a bullet wound and surrounded by the enemy's swordsmen. In bringing him under cover he (Lieutenant Greaves) was struck by a bullet and killed—Lieutenant MacLean was mortally wounded—whilst the horses of Lieutenant-Colonel Adams and Lieutenant Viscount Fincastle were shot, as well as two troop horses.
— London Gazette, 9 November 1897{{London Gazette|issue=26908|page=6143|date=9 November 1897}}}}

Lieutenant Greaves was acting as war correspondent for The Times of India. Viscount Fincastle was also acting as a war correspondent, for The Times. A fuller account is given by Winston Churchill in The Story of the Malakand Field Force.Churchill, W.S., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_ugUZWB1GsC&pg=PA81 The Story of the Malakand Field Force - An Episode of the Frontier War], reprinted by Arc Manor, 2008, pages 81-82

Adams and Fincastle were awarded the Victoria Cross (VC). At that time the VC was not awarded posthumously, and the London Gazette noted "Lieutenant Hector Lachlan Stewart MacLean, Indian Staff Corps, on account of his gallant conduct as recorded above, would have been recommended to Her Majesty for the Victoria Cross had he survived." MacLean was awarded a posthumous VC in 1907 after the policy had been changed.{{London Gazette|issue=27986 |page=325|date=15 January 1907}}

During the same campaign Adams was mentioned in despatches three times and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). In 1899 he was appointed to the command of the Guides, and in September 1901 he was appointed aide-de-camp to King Edward VII and received the brevet rank of colonel.{{London Gazette |issue=27359 |date=27 September 1901 |page=6295 }} Promotion to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel followed on 11 September 1902.{{London Gazette |issue=27498 |page=7941 |date=25 November 1902}} In June 1904 he was promoted to temporary brigadier general{{London Gazette|issue=27736|page=7477|date=18 November 1904}} and given the command of the Umballa Cavalry Brigade. In March 1906 he was promoted to major-general{{London Gazette|issue=27911|page=3168|date=8 May 1906}} and transferred to the Derajat Brigade, but due to illness he resigned the command in 1908. He was invalided out of the army in 1911 and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the King's Birthday Honours of 1912.{{London Gazette|issue=28617 |page=4297 |supp=y |date=11 June 1912}}

Adams died in retirement at Inverness in February 1928 at the age of 71. After cremation in Maryhill, Glasgow, his ashes were buried at Tomnahuich Cemetery, Inverness.[http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/scoinver.htm Burial location of Robert Adams] Inverness

Adams was unmarried. He was the second cousin of Edward Donald Bellew, a Canadian WWI VC recipient.

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U192612 ADAMS, Maj.-Gen. Sir Robert Bellew], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 4 November 2012
• Major-General Sir R.B. Adams, V.C. (obituary), The Times, London, 14 February 1928, page 19
• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• Scotland's Forgotten Valour (Graham Ross, 1995)

• [http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/scoinver.htm Burial location of Robert Adams] Inverness

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Robert Bellew}}

Category:1856 births

Category:1928 deaths

Category:People from Murree

Category:British Indian Army generals

Category:British military personnel of the Tirah campaign

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath

Category:Corps of Guides (India) officers

Category:British military personnel of the Chitral Expedition

Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War

Category:Indian Staff Corps officers

Category:Suffolk Regiment officers

Category:19th-century British Army personnel

Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross