Sidney Bates

Corporal Sidney Bates VC (14 June 1921 – 8 August 1944) was a British Army soldier whose extraordinary courage during the Battle of Normandy earned him the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s highest award for gallantry. Born in Camberwell, London, to Frederick Bates, a rag-and-bone man, and Gladys May Bates, he left school to work as a carpenter’s labourer before enlisting in the Royal Norfolk Regiment in June 1940. After four years of training and home service, Bates landed in Normandy on D-Day with the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, as part of the 3rd Infantry Division’s advance across France.

On 6 August 1944, near Sourdeval, Normandy, Bates was commanding the forward section of his company when elements of the 10th SS Panzer Division “Frundsberg” launched a fierce counterattack supported by machine guns, mortars and armour. As approximately fifty to sixty German soldiers threatened to overwhelm his position, he ordered his surviving men into a stronger defensive location before seizing a Bren light machine gun and charging the enemy alone. Firing from the hip, he was struck repeatedly by machine-gun fire and mortar splinters, yet each time he rose to continue his advance. His fearless assault halted the German attack and forced the enemy to withdraw, restoring what had become a critical situation. Mortally wounded, Bates continued firing until his strength finally failed. He died of his wounds two days later, aged just twenty-three. His Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously in recognition of what the official citation described as his “supreme gallantry and self-sacrifice.”

Bates was buried in the Bayeux War Cemetery, France, where his grave remains a place of remembrance for one of the Royal Norfolk Regiment’s five Victoria Cross recipients of the Second World War. His Victoria Cross is preserved in the Royal Norfolk Regiment Museum in Norwich, while Bates Green in Norwich and a memorial near Perrier Ridge in Normandy commemorate his sacrifice. Regimental accounts also record that his company commander, Major Cooper-Key, persisted with the recommendation after it was initially rejected, ensuring that Bates ultimately received the nation’s highest award for valour. Today, Sidney “Basher” Bates is remembered as an ordinary working-class soldier whose extraordinary courage saved his comrades and secured his place among Britain’s greatest heroes.