Donald Russell Martin Yates
Donald Russell Martin Yates (1877-c1951)
1951 Obituary [1]
"Major DONALD RUSSELL MARTIN YATES, O.B.E., who was born in 1877, spent most of his career in India and Iraq.
He was educated at the Lower School, Rugby, and served his apprenticeship in the marine engineering works of Messrs. J. Penn and Son, Ltd., Greenwich, from 1894 to 1898.
After a brief experience at sea as marine engineer and as assistant works manager to Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Ltd., Erith, he secured an appointment as foreman in the light machinery department of Messrs. James Simpson and Sons, Ltd., Newark.
In 1905 he went out to India to join the firm of Messrs. Forbes Campbell and Company, Ltd., for whom he was employed as an assistant on the maintenance and construction of cotton mills. On the completion of a short engagement in a similar capacity with Messrs. George Gahagan, Bombay, structural and general engineers, in 1915, he was attached to the 3rd Sappers and Miners (India) and was on active service in Mesopotamia for four years, during which period he planned, erected, and supervised the R.E. workshops at Basrah.
He was twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded the O.B.E. On relinquishing his commission in 1922 he was granted the honorary rank of major. From 1920 to 1936 Major Yates held appointments with the Iraq Railways, first as works manager and for the last nine years as chief mechanical engineer. On his retirement he returned to England and turned his attention to the exploitation of his inventions in connexion with rolling stock and oil transport. During the 1939-45 war he found employment in the Fairey Aircraft factory at Hayes, Middlesex. Major Yates had been a member of the Institution for fifty years, having been elected a Graduate in 1900 and transferred to Associate Membership three years later."