Obituary for Warrant Officer Class 1 (RSM) WJ Bates BEM

WO1 (RSM) William John Bates BEM died in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital on 8 Aug 2012, aged 79, after a short illness. John, as he was known to almost everyone, was born in Leigh on Sea in Jan 1933, the 2nd son of 3 brothers and 2 sisters. At the age of 17 and a half, he enlisted for basic training into The Essex Regt. After 9 months, at the time of the Korean War, he found himself on a troopship, rebadged to The Suffolk Regiment, bound for the Far East.

His time was spent mainly in Malaya and he returned home to the UK in 1953. Over the next 18 years John served in The Suffolk Regt, HQ E Anglian Bde, 1 E Anglian, 4 R Norfolk and 1 R Anglian at home and abroad in locations such as BAOR, Trieste, Cyprus (during the EOKA emergency) British Guiana and Aden. Whilst in British Guiana 1961/62 John was awarded the BEM for outstanding services to the Battalion and for showing courage and initiative above and beyond the call of duty.

In his last 2 years of service John was posted to Depot Queen’s Division and promoted to WO1 (RSM) of the R Anglian Regimental Recruiting Team. One of the jobs of the RIT was to offer training to CCF units. On one exercise on Stanford Battle Area, John was noticed by the officers of Greshams’ School CCF from Holt in Norfolk; and learning of his impending retirement from the Army, they offered John the vacant position of School Staff Instructor and RSM. It was a position he would hold for the next 25 years. He was hard working, imaginative, skilled, tireless, but above all, he was respected by the officers and loved by the cadets. When the CCF dined out John on his retirement from Greshams’, Gen Sir David Thorne, under whom John had served a large part of his career, paid him the remarkable tribute of travelling up to Norfolk for the occasion. The General described John as an ‘End of Empire’ soldier, who had seen active service in almost every theatre in which the British Army had been involved, during a period of decolonisation and in the Cold War.

After retirement John settled in the village of Briston in North Norfolk, where he lived happily for 19 years. His home was named Minden Rose. He leaves his wife of 58 years, Vera, daughter Denise, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, to all of whom we extend our sincere condolences.

DY