Selected Biographies

Gates, Arthur Bernard – Born: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 8.8.1898.[1]  Parents: Herbert Spicer Gates (Clothier and Outfitter) and Fanny Elizabeth [née Jeavons].  Family Connections: Brother to Herbert Cedric Gates [b1890], Philip Jeavons Gates [b1895] and George Clifford Gates [b1903].  Home: 106 Risbygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1901), 49 Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds (1911), 127 Witton Road, Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire (1921), Comfort Transport Café, Stapleford, Cambridgeshire (1939).  Occupation: Engineering Student (1921), Manager of the Sudbury Transport Company [1934],[2] Transport Café Assistant (1939).  Married: May A. Making in 1922.  Service Record: Arthur enlisted as Pte.4404, later 202248 with 1/4^th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, being posted to Mesopotamia in 1916 as part of 41^st Indian Brigade.  He was placed on the Army Reserve in April 1919.[3]  Died: Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge on 10.9.1944.[4]

Gates, George Clifford – Born: Bradford, Suffolk on 7.12.1903.  Parents: Herbert Spicer Gates (Clothier and Outfitter) and Fanny Elizabeth [née Jeavons].  Family Connections: Brother to Herbert Cedric Gates [b1890], Philip Jeavons Gates [b1895] and Arthur Bernard Gates [b1898].  Home: 49 Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1911), 22 Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk (1921), 118 North Hinksey Lane, Boyley, Oxfordshire [1980].  Occupation: Engineer’s Assistant (1921), Turner [1922].  Service Record: George enrolled as Gnr.1667837 with the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1922, receiving his discharge in 1928.[5]  Died: Oxford, Oxfordshire in 1980.

Gates, Herbert Cedric – Born: Troston, Suffolk on 25.11.1890.[6]  Parents: Herbert Spicer Gates (Clothier and Outfitter) and Fanny Elizabeth [née Jeavons].  Family Connections: Brother to Philip Jeavons Gates [b1895], Arthur Bernard Gates [b1898] and George Clifford Gates [b1903].  Home: Troston, Suffolk (1891), 106 Risbygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1901), 2 Church Lane, Whitechapel, London [1915].  Occupation: Farmer [1914].  Married: Maggie Pittaway in 1917.  Service Record: Emigrating to Canada before the First World War, Herbert joined the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 25.9.1914, being posted to France in 1915 as Pte.35416 with 10^th Battalion, Canadian Army Service Corps.  He received a gunshot wound to his left thigh during the Battle of Vimy Ridge on 9.4.1917 and was discharged as medically unfit on 13.6.1918.[7]  Died: Sooke, British Columbia, Canada on 7.3.1965.

Gates, Herbert Dudley – Born: Leyton, Essex on 3.11.1891.[8]  Parents: Herbert Henry Gates (Milling Engineer at the Stafford Allen Works) and Annie [née Rennick].  Home: Mill House, Stafford Allen Works, Long Melford (1901 and 1911), 91 Upton Road, Bexleyheath, Kent (1939) to [1954].  Occupation: School Teacher (1911), Engineer’s Clerk in Gun Control Gear Drawing Office (1939).  Service Record: Herbert was attested as Pte.G.21172 with 10^th [Service] Battalion, The Queen’s Own [Royal West Kent] Regiment, part of 123^rd Brigade in 41^st Division, his unit seeing action during the Somme Offensive of 1916, and the Third Battles of Ypres in 1917.  By the time of his discharge, he had been issued with a new service N^o. L/13758 and attained the rank of Company Quartermaster Sergeant.[9]  Died: The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London on 29.12.1954.[10]

Gates, Philip Jeavons – Born: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 22.10.1895.[11]  Parents: Herbert Spicer Gates (Clothier and Outfitter) and Fanny Elizabeth [née Jeavons].  Family Connections: Brother to Herbert Cedric Gates [b1890], Arthur Bernard Gates [b1898] and George Clifford Gates [b1903].  Home: 106 Risbygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1901), 49 Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmunds (1911), Rose Cottage, Duston, Northamptonshire [1919], 22 Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk (1921), 48^A Gainsborough Street, Sudbury (1939), 1 North Street, Sudbury [1955].  Occupation: Clothing and Outfitting Apprentice (1911), Assistant at Gates Outfitters (1921), filed a Patent to improve Electrical Switchboards, was also a member of the Sudbury Auto Electrical Supply Service [1923], Vice-President of the National Association of Wholesale Poultry and Rabbit Dealers [1942], Director of Konevale Packing (Frozen Foods) of Ballingdon [1946].[12]  Married: Eva S. Wilcox [d1919] in 1918 and Nellie Constance Smith in 1945.  Service Record: Philip enlisted on 14.6.1914 as Pte.2888, subsequently promoted to Corporal with 1/20^th [County of London] Battalion, London Regiment [Blackheath and Woolwich], being posted to France on 9.3.1915 as part of 141^st Brigade, 47^th (2^nd London) Division.  His unit was soon in action at the Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festaubert, Loos and the Hohenzollern Redoubt in 1915.  As no extant Service Record has survived it is not known when he was transferred as A/Sgt.137724 to the Labour Corps, however he fell ill and was issued with a Silver War Badge, receiving his discharge in June 1919.[13]  During the Second World War Philip Gates acted as the Quarter Master Sergeant in the Local Defence Volunteers joining ‘H’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Suffolk Home Guard when it was formed in August 1942.   His name is recorded in the official tribute to the organization entitled The Lion Roared his Defiance, photographed in and around Long Melford in 1944.  In addition, he was the books main editor and is pictured with the Armourer Captain Hempstead on page [14]five and sitting in the front seat of the Headquarters Operations Car on page forty-four of the publication.  In civilian life he was a founding member and producer of plays for the Sudbury Dramatic Society from 1925 to 1952.  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk on 1.4.1955.[15]

Notes – [1] 1939 Register.  [2] Suffolk Free Press 10.5.1934.  [3] Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372], and Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 [ref: 11/M/299285, 6/Mg/No.4633].  [4] Bury Free Press 16.9.1944.  [5] Royal Artillery Attestations 1883-1942.  [6] Date of birth taken from his Canadian Attestation Papers.  [7] Library and Archives of Canada https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca [ref: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 3439 – 3].  [8] 1939 Register. [9] Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [10] National Probate Calendar.  [11] 1939 Register.  [12] Suffolk and Essex Free Press 3.5.1923 and Bury Free Press 30.1.1943. [13] Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372], [WO 329] – Silver War Badge ref: [ref: B311578] and Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 [ref: 7/Mg/575].  [14] Published by Marten & Son, Ltd., of Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1946.  I am grateful to a fellow Home Guard Dick Baber of Rodbridge, Long Melford who identified Gates in an interview with the author in 2023. [15] National Probate Ledger.