William Adams (oculist)

For several years Adams gave his services free to soldiers whose eyesight had been affected in the military campaigns in Egypt.

[2] As a young man, he worked for John Hill, a surgeon in Barnstaple, who sent him to London to obtain his professional qualifications.

In 1811 he helped restore some sight to the famous blind organist John Purkis after a series of operations in London and Exeter.

He had a valuable political supporter in the future Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, who persuaded Parliament to award him £4000.

[2] Adams assumed his wife's family name in accordance with her mother's wishes, and was known as Sir William Rawson after 1825.