1884, Civil Registration Birth Index: "Fred Yates"

1861 census, Birstall Yorkshire: his mother's family name is "Dewhirst"

1871 census, Gomersal Yorkshire: his mother's family name is "Dewhirst"

1891 census, Gomersal: "Fred Yates"

1901 census, Birstall: "Fred Yates"

1921 to 1926, Birstall electorial registers (orig.): "Fred Dewhirst Yates" (and "Fred Yates" before 1921)

1924: UK outward passenger list, Liverpool 1 March 1924 to New York: "Fred Dewhirst Yates" (and same name in NY incoming list 11 March)

1924: UK incoming passenger list, New York to Liverpool 24 March: "Fred Yates"

1932: Burials in the Parish of Birstall (orig. document): "Frederick Dewhirst Yates"

Fred Dewhurst Yates (kibitz #30)

now that the Yorkshire site has gone dead:

But this excerpt from the article in the <Nottingham Guardian> of November 15th, p.5, has some interesting additional information:

<Virginia Arelo [other papers have <Av(a/e)llone>], proprietress of the boarding house, said Mr. Yates had a top room there for some years and owed about five weeks' rent. She was not concerned about the money.

Yates was a very quiet little man. She did not see much of him, and so far as she knew he had never threatened his life.

Miss Olive Holmes, a chambermaid, who discovered the tragedy, said some food was left outside Yates's room on Thursday, and was not touched. On Friday afternoon she smelt gas, and on going into the room, the door of which had to be forced, found Yates lying on the bed apparently in deep sleep. There were marks, apparently blood-stains, on the pillow.

P.c. Lewing, who was called, said the gas fire was turned off, and there were no indications that Yates had committed suicide. Dr. Price [elsewhere <Dr. White>] said there were no signs of violent death. What appeared to be blood stains were the result of vomiting after drinking coffee. Death was due to coal gas-poisoning.

Replying to the coroner, Dr. Price said that Yates may have been gassed in his sleep from a leak.>

I think the common assumption has been that Yates died 'peacefully' in his sleep, but this titbit about the vomit on the pillow raises its suggestive head - could it have been connected with Yates's death throes? If so, does it indicate that Yates may have conscious to some degree, at some point, during the process of asphyxiation? Alas, there's no detail about the amount of vomit, or whether there was any sign of it around the mouth and throat. One would also like to know about the presence of any coffee, alcohol or food within the stomach.

<MR. F. D. YATES, the world famous chess player and British champion in 1931, was yesterday found dead in bed at the Avalon Apartment Hotel, in Coram-street, Bloomsbury, W.C.

Detective-inspector Nunn, of Grays Inn-road, visited the hotel shortly afterwards, but not a letter was found in the dead man's room, neither was there any money.

The story of the tragedy reveals the pluck of two young girls who assist the proprietress of the boarding-house.

Miss Mabel Kennedy, who is in her teens, told a Gazette reporter that she took breakfast up to Mr. Yates' room on Thursday morning, and left it outside the door, but it was still there untouched yesterday.

Apparently Mr. Yates was rather eccentric as well as a sort of recluse, for Miss Kennedy said it was "nothing unusual" to find that Mr. Yates did not eat his meal, and that he often stayed in his bedroom all day as well as night.

"But as there were two letters for him in the afternoon," she explained, "I decided to take them up. As I reached the door, which was locked, I detected a strong smell of gas and receiving no answer to my knocks, I felt there was a tragedy inside because I knew he was there.

<One of the staff who was present at the tragic discovery told a reporter:- "He was most reserved and never entered into discussions with other residents. Ho was a man of meticulous habits, getting up each day between noon and one o'clock in time for lunch. Then he would go out, and we would probably see nothing of him until his breakfast was taken to him next morning.

"So far as I understand, his father and mother are not living, but I think he has two sisters in Yorkshire. I do not think that anyone has seen him since Wednesday morning, when his breakfast was taken to him. On that occasion, he remarked to the maid who took it up, 'Are you going to the Lord Mayor's Show?'

"That was the last we saw of him until he was found dead.

"Yesterday morning we went upstairs with his breakfast, but on knocking at the door we could get no reply. We heard him groaning slightly, but were not unduly alarmed.

"Practically the only people who had visited him here, were a gentleman and a youth with whom he used to play chess. Chess was an obsession with him. I think he was single, and between 40 and 44 years of age."