Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

23/02/1916

Place of Enlistment

Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

01/05/1886

Place of Birth

St Helen's, England

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier / member of Instructional Staff at Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Next of Kin

Son of Alexander Atwell Yates and Lyla Atwell Yates; husband of Grace Yates of 36 Botany St, Waverley NSW.

Burial Place

France 1170 Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery Fouilloy

Final Rank

Captain

Final Unit

35 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action) 8 August 1918 aged 33 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 126, Canberra ACT
Queanbeyan Masonic Centre Roll of Honour 1914-19
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette, 1 June 1917, Page 5422, position 69)

Yates was born on 1 May 1886 in Widnes, England and was a professional soldier having spent five years with the North Lancashire Regiment, six years as Squadron Sergeant Major with the Instructional Staff, Australia and four years as Squadron Sergeant Major at the Royal Military College, Duntroon (from May 1912). A Freemason and keen cricketer he was particularly known as a middle distance athlete who conducted weekly rifle drills for civilians. He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1916 when he embarked in Sydney. Yates served in France from November 1916 with the 35th Battalion Machine Gun Section and was promoted to Captain in December 1916. The following June he was Mentioned in Despatches. He was killed in action at Hamel on 8 August 1918 by an enemy bullet whilst leading his company. The remains of Captain Yates were interred in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery. There is no Roll of Honour Circular for this man.

Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 139 pounds, chest 35-37 inches, no civil convictions.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Honours & Awards
AWM First World War Embarkation Rolls
AWM Collection Records - E02190, E04819, E04819K
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. VI, p.537)
Patricia Clarke, ‘War Widows of the ACT’, https://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/widows/yates.html
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Colonel J.E. Lee, Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946, Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1952 (p.45)
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.4, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Queanbeyan Age - 18 February 1913, 12 September 1913, 18 August 1914, 9 June 1914, 28 May 1915, 22 February 1916, 3 March 1916, 7 August 1917, 2 November 1917, 23 August 1918
Sydney Mail - 2 May 1917 (p.34)