A Tribute to the late Adrian Bates who died in January 2022

Adrian Michael Buckland Bates was born in south London in 1936 but at the age of 3 years the family became a casualty of WW2 and were evacuated to Sussex where he grew up. He was a pupil at East Grinstead County Grammar School and then a student at King’s College London where he attained a B.Sc degree.

Adrian said he couldn’t remember when he didn’t work. First as a paper boy at a young age, giving out Christmas cards to customers which gave rise to generous tips. Later on a farm, which is now under Gatwick Airport, Adrian liked tending the pigs but not the chickens. He was a competent rider, owning a horse called Knight. Between leaving school and college he worked on the building sites of Crawley new town learning many skills. For a while he drove taxis but the new inhabitants couldn’t remember where they lived in the burgeoning new town! Adrian was still a student when he met Gail on the Brighton to Victoria line and they were married in Worth church, Pound Hill in August 1959

Adrian joined IBM UK Ltd in 1962 and in 1980 was offered a position as Manager of Executive Education at IBM Hurlsey. This brought him, Gail and their 3 sons to Micheldever. While employed and travelling abroad he was known as ‘Gail’s husband’ but on retirement came into his own as someone who could repair or renew notice boards, remake the church flagpole, fix lighting problems and make bespoke furniture for people in the village. The projects were mainly carried out in Adrian’s self-built barn/ workshop and he soon became “Mr Fix It”. During his life Adrian took up an interest in boats and starting with the construction of a Mirror dinghy and eventually progressed to fitting out a 32ft Hunter sailing boat in which many trips were made across the Channel and as far west as Falmouth.

On retirement Adrian spent several years as a voluntary mentor for the Princes Trust which he found rewarding. In 2016 Adrian became involved in a controversial protest group regarding a proposal to construct an anaerobic waste plant at Micheldever Station. He did an enormous amount of research and challenged the company; realising that they had not done their homework. So together with other members of MAG, Micheldever Action Group, he managed to get the scheme dropped.

To crown it all “Ancestry.co.uk revealed that the Bates family claimed origins in Micheldever as the names Hooker and Buckland came up. Adrian’s Great Grandmother, Martha Buckland, married Henry J Bates, a coachman. Adrian was a practical as well as an intellectual and trustworthy man. Adrian was immensely proud of the achievements of his 3 Sons and 9 Grandchildren and his company is greatly missed. GB