Orders, Decorations and Medals

Bates family group:

Three: Captain F. Bates, Merchant Navy

British War and Mercantile Marine Medals (Frederick Bates); France, Medal of Honour, Ministry of Marine, 2nd class, gold (F. Bates, 1915), complete with wire embroidered ribbon, in case of issue; Memorial Plaque (Frederick Bates)

Pair: Telegraphist W. F. Bates, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

British War and Victory Medals (M.Z.223 Tel., R.N.V.R.)

Pair: Forewoman E. Bates, Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps

British War and Victory Medals (16065 Fwn, Q.M.A.A.C.)

Pair: Gunner J. D. Dickens, Royal Artillery

British War and Victory Medals (168876 Gnr., R.A.) very fine and better (lot) £600-700

Frederick Bates was born in Liverpool in 1861 and educated at the Brunswick School, Erskine Street, Liverpool and at the Liverpool Institute. He entered the Merchant Navy as an apprentice in 1876, learning his trade on the Indefatigable. In 1887 he entered service with the Moss Line as a Third Officer and in 1896 was appointed to the command of the steamer Sphynx. He subsequently commanded the Moss Line ships Osiris, Osmanli, Tabor, Menes, Seti and Meroë. He came to public notice in 1915, when as Captain of the S.S. Meroë, he was instrumental in rescuing over 200 passengers and crew from the torpedoed French liner Ville de la Ciotat. The ship was in the Mediterranean, en route from Japan to Marseilles, when on 24 December 1915 she was torpedoed by an Austrian submarine off Crete. The stricken liner sank quickly. Of the 135 passengers and 181 crew on board, 35 passengers and 45 crew were either killed in the explosion or drowned. Most of the survivors were picked up by the Meroë which bravely cruised around for about an hour and a half, finally landing 208 persons at Malta. The remainder were rescued by other vessels. For his services in rescuing a large number of passengers and crew with an enemy submarine known to be in the vicinity, he was awarded a French Medal of Honour and received a Testimonial from the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society. The attack and rescue was widely reported in the newspapers.

On 2 November 1916 the Meroë was sunk by a German submarine. A newspaper report states that Bates suffered severely from shell shock and exposure, being in an open boat for some 36 hours before being recovered and taken into Gibraltar. The details of the loss are few but it was recorded, somewhat ungenerously, in the Digest of Admiralty In-Letters, 1916 that the ship was was ‘prematurely abandoned by the Master who did not take the best steps to save his vessel’. However, as a result of the privations he endured in the loss of his vessel, Bates began to suffer from a growing paralysis to his spine, which led progressively to his death on 17 February 1919. He was buried in Eccleston (St. Thomas) Churchyard Extension.

William Frederick Bates was the son of Frederick and Maud Elizabeth Bates, born c.1895. Following his father’s profession, he served two years as a Cadet on H.M. Training Ship Conway and in 1911 began his naval apprenticeship on Messrs. Hogarth’s ‘Baron’ Steamers. Circa 1916 he entered the R.N.V.R.

The medals to Captain F. Bates sold with a number of original documents, including the recipient’s ‘Certificate of Competency as Master’, dated 14 February 1891; a Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society Testimonial mounted on card, to ‘Captain Frederick Bates, S.S. “Meroë” for Praiseworthy and Humane Service in rescuing 238 Passengers and Crew of the French S.S. “Ville de la Ciotat”, torpedoed in the Mediterranean on December 24th 1915’; also with Certificate of Award for the French Medal of Honour, Ministry of Marine, 2nd Class in gold, for the same event, dated 2 March 1916; two photograph albums, pre-war, containing photographs of family and places visited, one album inscribed to Maud E. Bates (wife of Captain F. Bates); several loose portrait photographs and two sketches of the recipient; plus a quantity of newspaper clippings relating to the rescue, his naval service and death.

The medals to William Frederick Bates sold with his original Ordinary Apprentice’s Indenture (Scotland), dated Glasgow, 14 August 1911, and several postcard photographs of the recipient and the ships on which he served.

Medals to Emmie Bates sold with two Q.M.A.A.C. metal badges, a cloth W.A.A.C. badge, and several postcard photographs of the recipient.

In addition to the above are sundry medal card boxes of issue, lockets and badges, the booklet, To Egypt by Moss Line S.S. Meroë; together with copied research. An impressive medal group and archive.