In May 2024, The Malling Society received an email from the Granddaughter of John and Alice Bates:
Dear Malling Society,
I am the granddaughter of Dr. J. V. Bates who lived at Wistaria House and who,” went about doing good”.
I have two volumes of letters dated 1915 to 1917 when he was serving as a medical doctor in the Great War.
I am hoping that you would be interested in them and would like to mail them to you.
(I am living in the USA.)
Respectfully,
Jenny Bates.
I replied to her, saying that we would be very interested in the letters and within a week I had them. I have converted them into a usable digital format from the original pages and this book came into being. This is now on show at the Twitch Inn Heritage Centre.
After further research have found out that John and Alice got married on the 24th November 1917 and had 2 sons John and David, sadly both but now deceased but the Grandchildren live on! Many of them following in the footsteps of their Grandfather and indeed their Great Grandfather.
While serving as an officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.), covering his training in Wiltshire (August 1915), his duties as Casualty Medical Officer at University College Hospital, London (October 1915), his posting to Wiltshire as medical officer to the and 15th and 16th Battallions Gloucestershire Regiment (22nd Reserve Brigade) and to the 16th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (November 1915 – March 1916), his service overseas in France and Belgium (May 1916 – August 1917) as medical officer to the 8th Battalion – The Black Watch (26th Brigade, 9th Division), and his duties as assistant anaesthetist at the Military Hospital, Colchester (September – November 1917).
The letters provide excellent details about his experiences on the Western Front, especially relating to the capture of Longueval during the Battle of the Somme (July 1916), for which action he was awarded the Military Cross*, and to the Battle of Arras (April 1917) of which there is a transcription (4pp) of his diary (not with the collection).
Within this volume there is also some extracted information on the 8th Battalion – The Black Watch, and a report made by John on the Battle of Arras.
Kris Mercer
Web Admin