Career
As a defender of Wilde during his trial and imprisonment, Adey visited the fallen author in Reading Gaol, attempted to negotiate on behalf of the gaoled writer"s interests as his de facto guardian, and oversaw a collection that was used to purchase necessities of life, including clothes, for him upon his release. When Douglas and Ross faced each other in court in 1913 in the Arthur Ransome libel case, Adey testified in Ross"s favor, which caused Douglas to sever his ties with his former friend. Adey can thus be seen as a point of connection between the aesthetes of the London 1890s and the Bloomsbury circle that came to prominence a generation later.
He is credited with over thirty bylined articles in the magazine, as well as numerous unsigned notes and reviews, and is credited with bringing a strong iconographic appreciation to the magazine.
Ross"s death in October 1918 was a blow to Adey, who wrote in a letter to a mutual friend five days after the bereavement that "no one can ever be to me what he has been". Ross made his former partner the principal beneficiary of his will, but at an unknown point in the 1920s Adey was overcome by mental challenges and had to be confined in a place of long-term care.