Name
Alfred Henry Bates
1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/03/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
10566
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the fallen, in France.
UK & Other Memorials
Chipperfield Village Memorial, St Pauls Church Memorial, Chipperfield, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Alfred Henry Bates was born in 1880, in Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, son of Frederick and Elizabeth Ann (nee Radcliff) Bates. One of eight children. Baptised on 2 May 1880, in the Parish Church Chipperfield.
1881 Census records Alfred aged 1, living with his parents and sister Jane (7) in, The Common, Chipperfield, Herts.
1891 Census records Alfred aged 11, at school, living with his parents, and five siblings in, Flint Row, The Common, Chipperfield.
1901 Census, Alfred is working as a General Labourer, living with his parents and four siblings in, The Common, Chipperfield.
1911 Census records Alfred aged 31, single, working as a General Labourer, living with his parents and three siblings at, Ivy Cottage, Chipperfield. His grandmother Elizabeth Radcliff was also living with the family.
We believe Alfred married Annie Eliza Knighton, the daughter of George and Alice Knighton, in 1916, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
Wartime Service
Alfred enlisted at Bedford in September 1914, posted to the Bedfordshire Regiment with the service number 10566, serving with “C” Company, 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He sailed with his Battalion from Southampton on 30 July 1915, aboard the “SS Empress Queen” arriving at Le Havre, France, the following day 31 July, disembarking at 7-30am, the battalion then marched to No 5. Rest Camp.
On 10 July 1916, Alfred was admitted to No 34. Casualty Clearing Station with a Gun Shoot Wound to his right chest.
Later transferred to the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, with whom he was serving when he was Killed in Action on 27 March 1918, aged 38, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the fallen in France.
Additional Information
His effects of £5-3s-6d, Pay Owing and his War Gratuity of £17, went to his widow Annie.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
