2014 WILL BE the 100th anniversary of the death of this gallant British officer. Major Charles Allix Lavington Yate, VC admired the Japanese in his all too brief but eventful life. His connection with Japan is largely forgotten today.

EARLY LIFE

A branch of the Yate family moved to Madeley Hall from Berkshire in the eighteenth century. Charles Yate was born in 1872 in Mecklenburg, Germany. When he was two years old the family returned to England where his father, George, became the vicar of St. Michael's Church, Madeley; his mother, Louise Caroline, who was George Yate's second wife, was German. This may explain why Charles was born in Germany and became a fluent German speaker in addition to French and later Japanese. He was the only son of his father's five children and was christened Charles Allix Lavington Yate (Allix and Lavington being family names) and was known as ‘CAL’ throughout his life.

Charles was educated at Weymouth College until 1890 when he entered the Royal Military College in 1891 at Sandhurst. On completion of the two-year course he passed out 9th out of 1,100 cadets.

INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

He was gazetted into 2nd Battalion, The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1892 and joined the Regiment on 5 October 1892 when the Battalion was the foreign service battalion of the Regiment in Bombay. He first saw action on the North West Frontier, for which he was later awarded the 1895 Indian Service Medal with the clasp Punjab Frontier 1897–98.