Peter Bates

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Portrait of Peter Bates
Imagined portrait based on a family likeness. No photograph of Peter is known.

Private 823231 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Jayforce, Japan

Early life

Peter Gordon Noha Whare Bates was born in about 1922 and lived in Earn Street, Invercargill, before the war. His sister, Mrs S. Leitch of Hill End, was his next of kin, and he was single and working as a labourer. His family is Ngāi Tahu, of Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Tuahiwi Marae.

War

Peter sailed with D Company in 1945 and reached Italy as the fighting ended. He then went to Japan with the main body of Jayforce, serving as a trooper in D Squadron of the 2nd New Zealand Divisional Cavalry Regiment.

After the war

Peter married and had four children. The family lived at Bluff after the war and later at Rangiora. Peter died at Princess Margaret Hospital, Christchurch, on 17 October 1989, aged 67, and is buried in Kaiapoi Cemetery.

Sources

Online Cenotaph C117457; Archives New Zealand, Jayforce nominal rolls (R22440245); Find a Grave; The Press, 18 October 1989.

Are you whānau? If you can add to his story, correct anything here or share a photograph, please get in touch.

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