Walter Yates

Who was Walter Yates?

Walter Gerald Yates was an English cricketer. Yates was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He was born at Warsop, Nottinghamshire.

Yates made his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire against Leicestershire in 1937 County Championship. He made five further first-class appearances for the county, the last of which came against Kent in the 1938 County Championship. In his six first-class appearances, he scored 69 runs at an average of 9.85, with a high score of 19. He took a single first-class wicket, that of Essex captain Denys Wilcox.

Yates served during World War II with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, serving by November 1942 with the rank of Corporal. By April 1934, Yates held the rank of Pilot officer. It was in this month that he was dismissed from service by way of a General Court-martial. However, as the war effort was short of pilots, he was demoted and served as a Spitfire pilot in Burma with the County of Durham Squadron until the end of the war. He died in Nottinghamshire on 15 December 2008.