Marc Peirs Adams (FN 69-75). Marc’s brother Nic (FN 68-71) has sent in the following. “During his illness last year Marc made notes about his life, and these have helped me to write the following obituary. My brother Marc was born in 1957 in the British Military Hospital in Cyprus, during our father’s posting there with the RAF. Ours was a typical forces childhood, moving between bases every two or three years, until we were both sent to Huyton Hill Prep. School, near Ambleside. I then went on to St Bees, with Marc following me soon afterwards. Of his time at St Bees, he writes that the main school, the rather austere red sandstone St Bees public school was altogether a different experience, from the beautiful shores of the English Lakes to the wild wind swept shores of West Cumberland and the Irish Sea. He thrived and survived with sport, fagging duties, and being canny with the system; academics were not high on his agenda. Albeit, he achieved the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award, venturing into the Lakeland fells unfettered by directing staff or masters and germinating his outdoor adventurous love of our northern fells. He also mentions his love of sport, at which he excelled, particularly rugby, cricket, shooting, swimming and all forms of athletics. On leaving St Bees Marc obtained a degree in zoology from the University of London. While studying there he was approached by army recruiting staff and decided to apply for a short service commission, attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. After commissioning, his first posting was as a platoon commander with the 1st Battalion the Kings Regiment in Osnabruck, Germany. As Marc says in his notes, ‘probably the best job in the world for a young man’. He was well suited to army life, and enjoyed the many off duty sporting pursuits, including skiing and sub-aqua diving. He also spent time in Canada and Norway. Having been promoted to captain, he left the army in 1984. He then worked for a firm of surveyors in Yorkshire for five years but realised that he missed military life and so began a new career as an RAF officer. He had many postings, mainly in the UK, but also to Basra and the Falkland Islands. Although not an RAF pilot Marc had gained his helicopter pilot’s licence privately in California. On leaving the RAF at retirement age, Marc was able to spend some time enjoying his passion for nature and worked for the North Pennines AONB for a while. He then joined the RAF reserve and was given a posting as a full-time member of staff in Edinburgh.
On finally retiring from the RAF, he lived with his wife Dee in Allendale, Northumberland and he describes this as being the most memorable part of his life. He was very involved in village life, being a member of the local Lions Club, and followed his many interests, from studying beetles to being a co-driver on a rally through Mongolia to raise money for charity. He enjoyed walking his two dogs in the beautiful countryside locally. Sadly, Marc was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late 2022 and his illness progressed very swiftly.  Even so he kept up with his hobbies whenever he felt well enough and enjoyed seeing the many people who came to visit him. He was very well known and liked in the village and there was a huge attendance at his funeral, not only from his friends locally but also many people from his years in the forces. I read Marc’s own notes on his life shortly before his funeral and I was amazed at all the things he had achieved, many of which I had not been aware of at the time. There are so many interesting anecdotes in his notes that they would probably fill several Old St Beghian Bulletins, so the above obituary is just a summary.
	Foundation North Shooting Team From the middle top clockwise: Douglas Hamilton-Dick, Rowan Atkinson, Peter Gott and Marc Adams.
He had truly lived his life to the full and as he said to me, ‘I have already done just about everything that I would have put on my bucket list’.” Nic has also sent in two photographs of Marc. The first is of the Foundation North shooting team. We are unsure of the date, but from the top clockwise, the pupils present are: Douglas Hamilton-Dick, Rowan Atkinson, Peter Gott and Marc Adams. The second photograph Marc has captioned "Senior House Rugby Easter 1975" and Marc is seated in the centre, so we assume he is the captain.
Senior House Rugby Easter 1975 - Marc is seated in the centre

 

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