Bates,+Joe

Private, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment. Service number 267064.
 * Joe Bates**



Born 1894 in Ovenden, Halifax. Survived the war. His service began in 1916 when he was aged 22 years, and at that time he lived at Grange Farm Oxenhope. From a large family, six of his brothers served in the war. Their parents were Thomas and Violet nee Lockwood. Thomas was a labourer in a stone quarry.

Joe won a Military Medal and a Bar to that medal and these were both reported in the London Gazette. Awarded for bravery in battle. There are no records regarding a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for him and it is also not mentioned in his Army service record, so we believe that the newspaper caption below which states he won the DCM is a typographical error and that he was in the newspaper because he had won a bar to his Military Medal. The date of the newspaper photograph also coincides with him winning the Military Medal on the first occasion.

The names of five of the brothers are listed on the plaque from Sawood Wesleyan Chapel including Harry, the first from Oxenhope to die but who enlisted in his mothers maiden name. The other brother Harry Lockwood was born before his parents married.