“Jack’s war” – twenty years in the British Army

This story is about my maternal grandfather, “Jack” John Bates. He served in the British army at the Somme and at Ypres during the First World War. Jack was in the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment. His father was an army man and Jack was an only child. He served in the Labour Corps and in the Expeditionary Forces. He was married to Irishwoman, Maggie Behan in January 1909. He was gassed as a Prisoner of War which affected him but fortunately he survived the war. He died many years later in 1956. His mother was from Drogheda and his father from Newcastle in England. He was born in 1878 in Guernsey or on a ship heading there. I have a treasure trove of memorabilia dating from my grandfather’s time serving during the Great War. Material that we have includes 2 medals and a miniature souvenir helmet as well as two prayer books – ‘A simple prayer book for soldiers’ and ‘The manual of catholic piety.’ He also kept what appears to have been a German Shell made into an ash tray and what was possibly a match box holder or cartridge case. I still have my grandfather’s baptismal certificate from Guernsey Church. The photographs and letters include a number of embroidered greeting cards which my grandfather sent to his loved ones at home in Drogheda, Ireland.