Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

David Henry Bates

 David Henry Bates was born in Canterbury Road, Surrey Hills, Victoria in July 1897 and was a Presbyterian. He had light brown curly hair, blue eyes, fair skin and was a height of 5’8”. He enlisted to join the war on the 21st of January 1916 when he was only 19 and became a Driver to the field artillery 8th brigade, reinforcement 1. He had prior experiences as a senior cadet in the light horse before war.

David took the boat “HMAT A7 Medic” with 229 other soldiers to the Western Front to fight. After two years he was promoted from a driver to a bombardier.

David was sick and injured a lot of the time in war, the first injury he got was a fractured forearm which he received on 20-3-1916. 3 months later David caught g nasty disease which left him in bed for 40 days. 3 months later he received a stomatitis ulcer, he stayed in bed for 7 days because of this. On the 1-8-18 David caught the same disease that left him bedridden before again, he stayed in hospital for 4 weeks before they realized he also had catarrhal jaundice, so he was sent to a more specialized hospital. After 25 days in this hospital his condition worsened as he had difficulty breathing, so he was sent back to Australia and was discharged on medical grounds.

David had trouble following the rules, there were a number of different occasions where he was caught doing the wrong things. The first offence that David committed during the war was when he went A.W.O.L (Absent With Out Leave) from the front for 11 days. It does not give a reason for this but he may have been trying to desert but was caught, or he might have left to have a bit of time away before coming back. For this offence he forfeited 23 days of pay and had to endure field punishment 1 for 21 days. Field punishment 1 consisted of heavy laboring duties, possibly being restrained in handcuffs or fetters, and being tied to a post or wheel.

The second offence David committed was being found in an estaminet (café) during prohibited hours. For this crime he was given field punishment 2 for 7 days. Field punishment 2 was similar to field punishment 1 except that the sufferer wasn’t tied to a post/wheel.

The third offence David committed was using insubordinate language to his commanding officer. He was also given 7 days of field punishment 2 for this offence.

David switched battalions many times, he changed from the 8th Field Artillery Brigade (F.A.B.) to the the 3rd Division Ammunition Column (D.A.C.) on the 6-10-16. On the 29-11-17 he changed from the 3rd D.A.C to the 7th F.A.B.

David survived the entirety of the war and in 1919 he changed his last name from “Bates” to “Sinclair”, there are no records listing why he changed his name.

 Bibliography

AIF Project 2009, David Henry BATES, UNSW Australia, accessed 22 March 2016, <https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=16119>.

This site supplied me with most of the work I did on the RSL website. So things like: where he was born, what battalion he fought with, what rank he was and what ship he went to England on.

Government of Australia 2016, NAA: B2455, BATES D H, National Archives of Australia, accessed 22 March 2016, <http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3056702>.

This site supplied me with most of the work I did in my bibliography as it had everything on there. It told how old he was, what types of sickness he caught, what type of injuries he received, his next of kin, what he looked like, where he went and the various things that happened during his time in war.

HMAT & HMNZT TRANSPORT SHIPS 2007, Flotilla, accessed 22 March 2016, <http://www.flotilla-australia.com/hmat.htm>.

From this website I found a lot about the ships that David travelled on and where exactly they travelled to.

David Henry Bates 2012, AWM, accessed 22 March 2016, <https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1993654/>.

From this source I learnt a lot about the battalions that David fought alongside  and the exact date and place he embarked on