Before moving to Sydney, George Adams was in the Victorian Police Force and a member of the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade. He joined the New South Wales Police Force, doing duty at Narromine and Bathurst.
In Sydney he worked as a storeman and played football with the Balmain club.
Adams enlisted at the outbreak of the war, sailing with the first Anzac convoy on board SS Afric in October 1914.
He was wounded twice at Gallipoli and was later court-martialled for being AWL. He was sentenced to two years’ hard labour in 1917 but escaped from custody. Upon recapture he was again court-martialled, this time receiving a ten-year prison sentence.
After the war his sentence was commuted and he returned to Australia in November 1919.