Private Robert Oates
Title: Private
Epithet: Soldier in the Cheshire Regiment
Record type: First World War Biographies
Town / Village residence: Douglas
Biography: Robert Oates was born in Douglas. In May 1900 he joined the Royal Lancaster Militia and served in the Boer War. Later he joined the Cheshire Regiment and served in India. Upon the outbreak of war in 1914 he was an army reservist living in Douglas. He was recalled to the army and in October 1914 he was badly wounded in the leg by a dum-dum bullet. This resulted in amputation of the lower part of the leg. Discharged from the army, Oates worked for a time as a civilian at Knockaloe Camp. After the First World War, as a widower he supported his children through a succession of jobs and with a meagre disability pension. In 1940 he volunteered for the Home Guard. (Image ref: PG/7516/1).
Occupation / profession: Soldier
Gender: Male
External sources: Drury Lane