 Born in 1890 in Arlecdon, Cumberland, he was educated at Arlecdon Council School, but left at an early age to earn family income; first in farm service, and then in the mines, as his father had been killed in a mining accident when John Adams was only four.In 1910 he emigrated to New Zealand, along with men who later occupied cabinet posts in that country.He returned to West Cumberland in 1914, and plunged into local politics.