Harold Raymond Kingsmill Bates

Who was Harold Raymond Kingsmill Bates?

Harold Raymond Kingsmill "Barehands" Bates DSC was an officer in the Royal Navy. His father was the Rector of Horsington, Lincolnshire. He was educated at St Michael's College, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, and at Magdalen College, Oxford University.

After having built a crystal radio receiver at the age of ten, Bates further developed his lifelong love for radio. He joined the British Merchant Navy, but transferred to the Royal Navy in 1939 on the outbreak of war. He saw active service in the Battle of the Atlantic and convoyed merchant and troop ships in the Mediterranean Sea and during the North Africa landings.

On 26 December 1943, Bates was the electrical officer aboard Duke of York, the flagship of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, when the ship was in pursuit of the German battleship Scharnhorst, which had sailed out of port in Norway to attack a Russian convoy. At one point, a German shell exploded near Bates's position near the antenna mast. The explosion moved the Duke of York's radar antenna out of alignment. In a winter force 8 gale, Bates climbed the mast to realign the antenna. The British ship sank the German ship, and Bates was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.