Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Captain W. G. H. Bates, 1st Battalion, Leinster Regiment

1914-15 Star (Capt., Leins. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.) good very fine (3) £300-400

William George Henry Bates was born in Thornhill, Toronto, 2nd son of the Rev William Wheatley Bates, M.A., of Toronto, by his wife Emily, daughter of Manasseh Leeson, an extensive landowner in Canada. He was educated privately, and at Trinity College, Toronto. He enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1901, hoping to see active service in South Africa, but the regiment was ordered to Crete and kept there until the conclusion of the campaign. After serving over two years in the ranks, he was given a commission, 7 November 1903, in the Leinster Regiment, and promoted Lieutenant in December 1906, and Captain in September 1912. He saw much foreign service, serving in Crete, Malta, Gibraltar, South Africa, Mauritius and India. In South Africa he was an Instructor in the School of Musketry, and invented an automatic elevating and traversing machine gun gear, which is now (1916) being tested in the Hythe School of Musketry. On the outbreak of war Captain Bates was in India, and arrived with his regiment in Flanders on 21 December 1914, holding the double command of Company and Brigade Machine Gun Officer.

He went through all the heavy fighting for Ypres, and served continuously until killed in action, shot through the head near Ypres on 26 April 1915. His commanding officer wrote: “Your husband was one of the bravest and most gallant men I know, and his death leaves a gap which cannot be filled. I can only add that he died like the gallant man he was.” A brother officer also wrote: “The Regiment can say of him that he never asked a man to do a thing he would not do himself. He simply did not know fear, and would always tell us that dying was part of the game. It isn’t only we officers who admired him, but every man who knew him would have followed him anywhere - everywhere he led.” He is commemorated by name on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.