Herbert Gates was born in 1902 in Faversham, Kent, the son of Mr and Mrs George Gates.  He joined the Royal Navy as a young man and served in the destroyer HMS WOLFHOUND.

At some point he left the Service to become a police constable. When the Second World War came he voluntarily returned to the Service (leaving what would have been a safe and reserved occupation) and leaving his family behind. He may well have been the oldest member of HMS TRIUMPH’s crew.

Bert was awarded a Commendation “for bravery and enterprise in boarding a burning merchantman” in Malta.

He died when TRIUMPH was lost with all hands having apparently struck a mine in the Aegean Sea. 

Herbert Gates was the husband of Elsie Maud Gates, of Sidcup, Kent. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 68, Column 1.