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About
261469Pte Robert James Bates
British Army 3/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment
from:Hemel Hempstead
(d.5th December 1916)
Born in 1894, Robert Bates lived with his parents, Fredrick and Emily at 55 St John's Road, Hemel Hempstead, and was employed as a mill hand at the Saw Mill (in Kingsland Road, Boxmoor) where his father also worked as a sawyer.
At the age of 21 he enlisted for service at Hertford on the 7th of June 1915 with the Hertfordshire Regiment. After a period of training he was posted to Northern France on the 13th March 1916 within a draft of 100 men.
Unfortunately, Robert’s front line service was to be short lived. Whilst serving in the trenches at Givenchy, he contracted pleural effusion (fluid next to the lung) and was returned to England for rest and treatment. Eventually, as his health deteriorated further, he was discharged from the Army on the 26th of September 1916 suffering from tuberculous peritonitis. By the end of the year he had died.
He is commemorated with honour on the Hemel Hempstead War Memorial. In 2019 as a result of an "in from the cold" application he was officially recognised by the CWGC as a war time casualty.
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