Walter Adams

Walter Adams was born in South Norwood, the son of a coachsmith. His father died when he was four years old, and he was raised in Camberwell, London by his mother and stepfather, who was a gas stoker.

A lifelong iron worker by profession, Adams was an active member of the amateur wrestling community of London in the early 1900s as a member of the nearby Olympic Amateur Wrestling Club in Walworth when he was one of 10 members to participate in the 1908 London Olympics. Competing in the featherweight class of the freestyle event, he lost his only bout to fellow Briton Jim Webster of the London Amateur Wrestling Society, who was also the reigning amateur featherweight champion. Adams later married in 1914 and had two children. He died in 1939 at the age of 51.