Captain Gladstone Adams (16 May 1880 – 1966) was, at one time, the Chairman of Whitley Bay Urban District Council. In April 1908, he drove down to Crystal Palace Park in a 1904 Daracq-Caron motorcar to see Newcastle United play against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup final. It was such a novelty to see a car in those days that it was put into a car showroom window while he was there, because so many people wanted to see it. On the way back from the cup final, snow kept getting on the windscreen and Gladstone had to keep getting out of the car to clear it. This experience led to his invention of the windscreen wiper. In April 1911, Gladstone patented the design of a windscreen wiper with Sloan & Lloyd Barnes, patent agents of Liverpool.