Our People - Richard Yates |
24 April 1918 |
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2nd Lieutenant Richard Yates
1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment 64th Brigade, 21st Division Died 24 April 1918 age 30 Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, Panel 47 to 48 and 163A. Order of Leopold Il (Belgium). Son of Mr. John Yates, of 1, Railway St., Moss Lane, Leyland, Lancs. Richard Yates was born in Farington c. 1884 to John and Isabella Yates. John was a railway storekeeper who was born in Farington c. 1849. Isabella was born in Leyland c. 1854. Samuel was originally a weaver at a local cotton mill, but by 1911 he had joined the Dragoon Guards and was a Lance Corporal - he is also listed as being in the Dragoon Guards after the outbreak of war in the Leyland Parish magazine of December 1914. Richard had two brothers and two sisters - Samuel, born Blackpool, c. 1881 (Samuel was also to perish in the war), Mary, born Blackpool c. 1884, Dora (Dorothy), born Farington c. 1891 and William, born Farington c.1895.
In 1901, the family lived on Farington Lane and by 1911, Isabella had died and Samuel was living with his father, Mary, Dorothy and William at 1 Railway Street, Leyland. Apart from the official record of his death in Soldiers Died in The Great War and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, nothing survives of Richards' military record, although W.E. Waring states he was awarded the Order of Leopold II (Belgium). The 21st Division, of which the 1st East Yorks was a part, was engaged in the ‘Second Battle of Kemmel’, 25th-26th April, 1918: it would seem that Richard Yates was killed in action on the eve of this battle. Note: In his original research W.E. Waring stated that Richard Yates was on more than one memorial in the local area. He was not at the tome that Waring was writing - at that time he was on the St. Ambrose Cross only. He now also appears on the South Ribble WW1 Memorial in Lostock Hall.
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Richard Yates on the Tyne Cot Memorial
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