Southam in WW1

Centenary Archive

Honouring those who died and all who served

Reginald Charles Adkins

Reginald’s parents were not originally Southam folk. His father Arthur was from Snitterfield and mother Keziah from Knightcote. Arthur was a bricklayer and the children were born when they lived in Harbury.  They moved to Southam and by 1911 Arthur was a widower living in Appendix Street with his youngest son Arthur Percy helping in the business and elder son Reginald working as a butcher’s assistant.

Reginald emigrated to USA in 1912 and lived in North Carolina. He sought naturalization in 1917 and on preliminary papers he renounced ‘allegiance and fidelity to King George V’.

When the USA entered the war in 1917 he received the draft to serve in WWI and he did not seek exemption.

On his return from the war he married Julia Maria Reavis and children Julian and Julia followed. He lived in Edgecombe, died in 1981 and is buried in Gilmont Cemetery, North Carolina, USA.