Dawson Bates

Sir Richard Dawson Bates, 1st Baronet OBE PC JP DL (23 November 1876 – 10 June 1949), known as Dawson Bates, was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.

The Right Honourable
Sir Dawson Bates, Bt
OBE PC JP DL
Bates (on left) in 1921
Minister of Home Affairs
In office
7 June 1921 – 6 May 1943
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
for Belfast East
Belfast, Victoria (1929–1945)
In office
1921–1945
Personal details
Born23 November 1876
Belfast, United Kingdom
Died20 June 1949
Glastonbury, United Kingdom
Political partyUlster Unionist Party
SpouseJessie Muriel Cleland
Children1

He was born in Strandtown, Belfast, the son of Richard Dawson Bates, solicitor and Clerk of the Crown, and Mary Dill. His paternal grandfather, John Bates (d. 1855), had been a minor figure in the Conservative Party in Belfast, before his duties were discharged on a Chancery Court ruling of maladministration.

Bates was educated at Coleraine Academical Institution. After studying at Queen's University Belfast, he became a solicitor in 1900, in 1908 founding a firm with his uncle – E and R.D. Bates, later R.B.Uprichard would be apprenticed, become a partner and eventually take over the firm of E and R.D. Bates and Uprichard, as Crown Solicitor. In 1906, Bates was appointed Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council. During this time, he was instrumental in the events of Ulster Day and in the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, organised the Larne gun-running and supported the formation of the Ulster Unionist Labour Association to counter socialism.[1] He toured Northern Ireland, working hard to build up the Unionist Party, while portraying all Roman Catholics, thus Nationalists as traitors.[2] Bates heavy influence in the UUP meant his reluctance to co-operate with Roman Catholics had to be heeded if the party was to avoid splits.[3]

Bates stood down as secretary on his election to Stormont in 1921, where he represented first Belfast East and later Belfast Victoria. In the government of James Craig he was the first minister for home affairs and a member of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland. On 15 March 1922 he introduced the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act, which permitted search, arrest/detention without warrant, flogging and capital punishment for arms offences.[4] Internments began upon the Commencement of the Act (7 April 1922). By May 1922 up to 700 Irish Republicans had been arrested.[5] In July 1922 many internees were transferred to the prison ship (hulk) HMS Argenta which has been described as a "floating gulag".[6]

In 1936 the British National Council for Civil Liberties published a report on the Special Powers Act and the actions of Bates stating: "As soon as the Special Powers Act was passed and Regulation 23B in operation the minister of home affairs and the police acting under his authority proceeded to arrest many hundreds of people suspected of political opposition to the Unionist party, and to intern them, in the majority of cases for upwards of two years. No charges were ever laid against these internees, nor did the minister or the police give any reasons, in writing or otherwise, for having them arrested."[7] Under his administration, Bates was accused of gerrymandering, and of intervening to ensure that prison sentences were not imposed on Protestants who attacked Catholics.[1]

Bates was also a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of County Down.

He married Jessie Muriel Cleland, daughter of Sir Charles John Cleland. They had one son, Major Sir John Dawson Bates, 2nd Baronet (an Oxford-educated Wykehamist, [1921-1998]).

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1919 New Year Honours,[8] Knight Bachelor in 1921[9] and was made a baronet of Magherabuoy, near Portrush, in County Londonderry on 7 June 1937.[10] In his retirement strained financial circumstances and security (he constantly required a police escort) led him to rent Butleigh House, near Glastonbury, Somerset. It was here he died in 1949; Bates' body was flown back to Ulster for burial at Ballywillan Church of Ireland.[1]

Bates was a director and president of Glentoran Football Club.[11]

Sources and reading
  1. "Bates, Sir (Richard) Dawson", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. Harbinson, John (1974). The Ulster Unionist Party 1882–1973 (1 ed.). Belfast: Blackstaff Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780856400766.
  3. Harbinson, p.51
  4. McCluskey, Fergal, (2013), The Irish Revolution 1912-23: Tyrone, Four Courts Press, Dublin, pg 127, ISBN 9781846822995
  5. Ferriter, Diarmaid, (2004), The Transformation of Ireland, The Overlook Press, New York, pg. 278, ISBN 1-58567-882-1
  6. McCluskey, pg 124.
  7. Boyd, Andrew (1984), Northern Ireland: Who is to Blame?, The Mercier Press Limited, Dublin, pg 52, ISBN 0 85342 708 9
  8. "No. 31114". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 January 1919. p. 453.
  9. "No. 32243". The London Gazette. 1 March 1921. p. 1692.
  10. "No. 34410". The London Gazette. 22 June 1937. p. 4010.
  11. Malcolm Brodie (1981), The Story of Glentoran. Belfast:Glentoran Football Club, p. 41
  • Ireland since 1939 (2006), Henry Patterson
  • A history of the Ulster Unionist Party (2004), Graham Walker
  • The Ulster Unionist Party, 1882–1973 : its development and organisation (1973), J F Harbinson
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