serviceyears branch death_place death_date birth_place awards battles birth_date nickname rank article_title name
1939 -- 1969 uk skegness , lincolnshire 9 may 2006 horsington , lincolnshire distinguished service cross world war ii 3 november 1916 king barehands captain harold raymond kingsmill bates
 harold raymond kingsmill bates
harold raymond kingsmill bates

harold raymond kingsmill `` barehands '' bates dsc -lrb- 3 november 1916 -- 9 may 2006 -rrb- was an officer in the royal navy .
his father was the rector of horsington , lincolnshire .
he was educated at st michael 's college , tenbury wells , worcestershire , and at magdalen college , oxford university .
after having built a crystal radio receiver at the age of ten , bates further developed his lifelong love for radio .
he joined the british merchant navy , but transferred to the royal navy in 1939 on the outbreak of war .
he saw active service in the battle of the atlantic and convoyed merchant and troop ships in the mediterranean sea and during the north africa landings .
on 26 december 1943 , bates was the electrical officer aboard , the flagship of admiral sir bruce fraser , when the ship was in pursuit of the german battleship , which had sailed out of port in norway to attack a russian convoy .
at one point , a german shell exploded near bates 's position near the antenna mast .
the explosion moved the `` duke of york 's '' radar antenna out of alignment .
in a winter force 8 gale , bates climbed the mast to realign the antenna .
the british ship sank the german ship , and bates was awarded the distinguished service cross .
dubbed `` barehands bates '' by the british press , the young officer became a national hero .
as radar was virtually unknown to the general public at the time , images depicted him holding two electrical cables together with his bare hands .
he was aboard and witnessed the japanese surrender in tokyo bay in 1945 .
he then commanded a landing party to find prisoner of war camps and release the prisoners .
as a royal navy captain , bates served as assistant director of royal naval intelligence , and later as deputy director of the admiralty underwater weapons establishment .
following the war , bates specialized in the radar control of guns and missiles , and oversaw the development and testing of the medium range system mark 3 -lrb- mrs3 -rrb- , an automatic radar control system for ships ' guns .
he retired from the royal navy in 1969 after thirty years service , purchasing a filling station in trowbridge , wiltshire .
during the last two years of his life , bates lived in a nursing home in skegness , lincolnshire , where he died .
