Charles Allix Lavington Yate
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Charles Allix Lavington Yate VC (14 March 1872 - 20 September 1914) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Yate, from Madeley, Shropshire, attended Sandhurst and joined the British Army. He saw service in India, Mauritius, South Africa during the Boer War, as an observer during the Russo-Japanese War, and between 1908 and 1914 he was on the staff of the War Office in London.
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[edit] Early life
Major Yate was born 14 March 1872 to the Reverend Prebendary George Edward Yate (1825 - 1908), the Vicar of St. Michael’s Church, Madeley from 1859 to 1908.[1]
Charles was educated at Weymouth College, and graduated from Sandhurst 9th out of 1100 cadets, and joined 2nd Battalion, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on 13th August 1892 in Bombay.[2] He first saw action in India in the Tirah expedition from 1897 to 1898, for which he was awarded the medal and clasp of the Tirah Expedition.[2] He was seriously wounded during the Boer War.[1]
On 17 September 1903 he married Florence Helena Brigg, from Greenhead Hall, Yorkshire.[1][2] There were no children.[1][2]
He was promoted to the rank of major in 1912.[1]
[edit] VC action
He was 42 years old, and a major in the 2nd Battalion, The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 26 August 1914 at Le Cateau, France, Major Yate commanded one of the two companies that remained to the end in the trenches, and when all other officers had been killed or wounded and ammunition exhausted, he led his 19 survivors against the enemy in a charge in which he himself was severely wounded. He was picked up by the Germans, but subsequently died as a prisoner of war a month later[3][1] at Targau POW Camp.[2]
Four other VCs were won that day at Le Cateau, including one by Lance Corporal Frederick William Holmes.[1]
Charles is buried in grave II. G. 8.[4] at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in Stahnsdorf, near Potsdam, Germany.[3]
[edit] The medal
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Museum in Doncaster, England.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Madeley's VC - Major C.A.L. Yate
- ^ a b c d e VC winner's, Ys
- ^ a b "Queen honours forgotten war hero", 2004-11-04. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
- ^ Casualty Details, CHARLES ALLIX LAVINGTON YATE
- ^ List of KOYLI medals held in the Regimental Museum
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- VCs of the First World War - 1914 (Gerald Gliddon, 1994)
