CWGC thanks Spink & Son Ltd for this story.

Harold Bate, born Barton in Lancashire in1896 was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and served in O.T.C.

He served with the 13th Battalion Manchester Regiment during the Great War on the Western Front and was killed in action on 7.7.1916 whilst attached to the 12th Battalion.  

On that date the battalion was part of the 52nd Brigade, 17th (Northern) Division, and was in action on the Somme during the attack on Quadrangle Support:

'With the attack starting a few minutes late, with the consequence that the barrage lifted from the German front trenches before the troops were within assaulting distance. Machine-gun fire, most of it from Mametz Wood on the right, cut down the first wave of the attack and the second struggled forward to meet a like fate: in broad daylight the two battalions had no chance of reaching Quadrangle Support over bare and open ground'.

Bate was originally reported Wounded and Missing in Action. An enquiry was held as to how he died.  Of the various witness accounts the conclusion was:

'on 7th July 1916 at Fricourt, we made the advance between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning. I saw Lieut. Bate who had been wounded, being carried back by a Sergeant. The Sergeant got wounded, but was able to get Lieut. Bate into a shell-hole. I was told later by Sergt. Durham of C Company 12th Manchester Regiment that they had both been blown to pieces by a shell, whilst lying in the shell hole wounded'.

Lieutenant Bate is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 13 A and 14 C, Somme Region in France.