Colonel Henry Stratton Bates

Colonel Henry Stratton Bates

• Death - 6th May, at Langtons, Alresford, Hants, very suddenly, from heart failure, late 8th Hussars, J.P. for Gloucestershire and Hampshire, aged 81. Funeral to-morrow (Saturday) at Alresford Church. (The Times, May 10, 1918)
• Served with the British Army in New Zealand as a lieutenant - from a c1856 to 1864
• Fought in the Taranaki and Waikato wars against hostile Maori tribes.
• Learned the Maori language
• Appointed as a staff interpreter to General Cameron.
• A.D.C. to Governor Sir George Grey.
• Married a Maori chieftainess, and they had one son. She died when the boy was about three, and Bates placed him under the care of a missionary family. Bates returned home, retired with the rank of colonel, and kept in touch with his son; the two later reunited in England.

"Colonel Bates never forgot the pretty Maori wife of his youthful colonial days. When he died he left his son all his property and made him a very wealthy man. (adapted from Auckland Star, Oct. 26, 1929).

Burial info from http://www.stjohnsalresford.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/buria...

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