William Yates

Who was William Yates?

William Yates was a British Conservative politician and later an Australian Liberal politician. He was one of several to have served in both the UK and Australian parliaments.

William Yates was born in 1921, son of William Yates and Mrs John T. Renshaw of Appleby, Westmorland and educated at Uppingham School and Hertford College, Oxford.

He entered the 2nd Dragoon Guards early in 1942 during the Second World War, and served through the war in North Africa and Italy, gaining rank of Captain in 1946. He lost a leg at the knee at the First Battle of El Alamein and became one of the first soldiers given penicillin. He postwar served with the Territorial Army attached to the Warwickshire Yeomanry in 1950, and in the Shropshire Yeomanry from 1956 to 1967.

Yates served in the Foreign Office in the Middle East, working in military intelligence in the Suez Canal Zone. He lived briefly in Lebanon.

A member of the Conservative Party, in 1955 he was elected to the House of Commons for the marginal seat of The Wrekin, and was re-elected in subsequent General Elections in 1959 and 1964.

During the 1956 Suez Crisis Yates emerged as one of the government's staunchest critics. On 1 November 1956, Yates interrupted on a point of order and said, "I have come to the conclusion that Her Majesty's Government has been involved in an international conspiracy". Later that day, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union at the United Nations joined forces and demanded a cease-fire as the secret alliance between Britain, France and Israel known as the Protocol of Sèvres was revealed. Ultimately the exposure led to the downfall of the Prime Minister Anthony Eden.