Second Lieutenant J S Yates, 3rd Battalion (attached 6th Battalion) R W Kent Regiment, was shot through the forehead while leading his platoon in a bayonet charge on October 8, 1915, storming a German trench south of La Bassee. He entered Hereford College, Oxford, as an Exhibitioner, from King’s School, Canterbury, in 1908 and after taking a Third Class in Hon. Mods, and a Second in Greats, was an Assistant Master at St Bees School until he received his commission in April 1915. His ardent affection for St Bees was wonderful. He displayed it in a hundred ways; in his laborious work for the library, in his keenness for the OTC, in the enthusiasm with which he coached the School House Juniors to victory. He gladly made his sacrifice for his country; his face  glowed as he spoke of the possibilities of his dying for it. What he did feel was leaving St Bees. Every letter from the Front told the same story. ‘Life here’, he wrote, ‘is very interesting, but it is not the real thing. My life is still being lived at St Bees.’

Elizabeth Wood