ROCKET APPARATUS – Presentation to Chief of Coastguards

Accreditation The Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 22/02/1878

PRESENTATION TO MR. JOHN BATES, LATE CHIEF
OFFICER OF THE COASTGUARD

            The members of the Redcar and Coatham Volunteer Life Brigade, together with if few friends, met at the Globe Hotel, Redcar, on Monday evening. (18/02) last for the purpose of presenting Mr. John Bates, late chief-officer of the coastguard, with a token of their respect and esteem, in the shape of a gold watch and appendages. Mr. Weatherill, occupied the chair, and in making the presentation, said that he had been solicited to do so by the subscribers, who wished to present Mr. Bates with a small token of the regard and friendship they felt towards him. For over forty years he had served his country faithfully, alike in peace and war, and during the last twenty years of that period he had been placed in a responsible position, the duties of which he had fulfilled with credit to himself and honour to his country; and it now because him to hand over a small pledge of friendship, as a memento of is long connection with the Redcar and Coatham, the subscribers to which trusted that he would accept it as it was intended, viz., as a mark of friendship from those who respected and admired him as a public man, all of whom joined in wishing him many years of health, and wear, and look upon it as an indicator of passing time. Mr. Bates. In reply, thanked the subscribers for their kindness, and said the watch and appendages would be valued by him as long as he lived, and after his death would be held as a valuable heirloom in his family. The watch, was supplied by Mr. Thos. Wakefield, watchmaker and jeweller, bore the following inscription: “presented to Mr. Bates by the members of the Redcar and Coatham Volunteer Life Brigade and friends. February, 1878.”