Just three weeks after the Gallipoli landing, Wilf Bates enlisted in the 6th reinforcement of the 1st Battalion A.I.F .At 22, the mechanical fitter from Granville was the first player from the Granville Rechabites club to sign up for the ‘great adventure’.
Embarking for Gallipoli less than a month after enlisting, Bates served in both the Gallipoli campaign and on the western front. Demobbed in 1919, Bates moved east to Homebush, marrying in 1921. He moved further east to Brighton-le-Sands sometime between marrying and 1930.
He was listed as an engineer on the electoral rolls and would spend the rest of his life there, dying at the age of 73.