Lance Serjeant Arthur Bates
Birth
Still under investigation.
Family History
Still under investigation.
Military History
Arthur Bates fought with the 1st battalion Lincolnshire Regiment.
The 1st Battalion was a regular army battalion and at the outbreak of the war were stationed at Portsmouth as part of the 9th Infantry Brigade.
The battalion had a large proportion of young soldiers with experience ranging from two weeks to two years when it was mobilised on the 4th of August. On the 8th of August the ranks were joined by over 500 reservists from the depot at Lincoln.
After a few days of training to prepare them for foreign service, the 1st battalion was fully mobilised, with those men not deemed as sufficiently trained sent to the 3rd battalion (reservists).
It is currently not known if Arthur Bates was or had previously been a regular soldier and if he was already serving in Portsmouth or was a reservist sent from Lincoln.
Arthur along with the 1st battalion caught a train to Southampton and embarked on the SS Norman for France on the 13th August 1914. The Battalion eventually disembarked in Havre at 2:30 in the morning of the 14th August becoming part of the 9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division, British Expeditionary Force.
The 14th and 15th in France suffered from violent storms and eventually on the evening of the 15th the battalion was entrained for Landrecies and the battle of Mons.
Over the next few days the British Expeditionary force pushed north and was in involved in the first shots fired by a British force in France on the 22nd August. By 10am on the 22nd the 1st Lincolnshire had marched into Frameries and onto their positions at Cuesmes by 12 noon. By the evening of the 22nd the British Expeditionary force had heard that the French had been pushed back by the enemy, leaving the British 9 miles ahead of the French main line.
The morning of the 23rd saw the Lincolns holding off the enemy from their forward positions and by 6pm on the 23rd had orders to retire back to Frameries where they would form the rear guard for the brigade to withdraw from the area.
Overnight the Lincolns had taken over an orchard in the Nothwest of Frameries and reinforced the defences with their trenching tools.
Daylight on the 24th brought an artillery barrage onto the town and eventually the Lincoln’s positions were under heavy attack from an enemy force that were surprised by the resistance that was put up both the Lincolns and the South Lancashire battalions.
Eventually after 3 or 4 hours of heavy fighting in which the Lincoln’s machine guns did a great job in holding up the enemy, the positions were eventually lost, but not before the two brigades of the British Expeditionary Force were able to have enough time to withdraw to Genly.
The losses of the 1st Lincolnshire numbered 4 officers and 130 other ranks over the days of the 23rd and 24th August 1914.
Lance Serjeant Arthur Bates was killed holding the corner of the orchard in Frameries.
In 1918 after the armistice two Captains of the Lincolnshire Regiment returned to Frameries to mark the graves of those killed in their brave action including that of Arthur Bates as can be seen in the plan below.
The medal roll of honour shows Arthur first as a private in the 1st battalion and then as a corporal.
It is not known when he received his promotions that ended up with him being referred to as Serjeant Bates.
Arthur Bates 5865, 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, was eligible for the following medals:-
Victory Medal
The British Medal
Memorial
Lance Serjeant A Bates,1st Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment, is remembered with honour at the Frameries Communal Cemetery. Ref: I.A.6.
The 9th Infantry Brigade fought their way through the streets of Frameries on 24 August 1914. The village remained in German hands until retaken by the Canadian Corps at the end of the war. The graves in the communal cemetery are largely those of soldiers who fell in August 1914, most of whom belonged to the 3rd Division and largely to the 1st Lincolns. These graves, with one exception, were brought into the cemetery after the Armistice.
Picture taken from the history of the Lincolnshire Regiment
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