ABSTRACT
David Robert Bates was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 18 November 1916. With his older sister Margaret, he attended a one-room one-teacher school known as ‘Miss Quiglie’s’. At the age of nine, his mother, the former Mary Olive Shera of a farming family, brought him to Belfast, seeking better educational prospects. His father, Walter Vivian Bates, who originated from Mountrath, County Laois, Eire, remained in Omagh to continue his business as a pharmacist, but travelled twice a week to Belfast to be with his family.
