Sir Richard Dawson Bates, Unionist Politician and Minister in Northern Ireland Is Born in Belfast

Sir Richard Dawson Bates, 1st Baronet OBE PC JP DL (23 November 1876 – 10 June 1949), known as Dawson Bates, was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.

Sir Richard Dawson Bates, the unionist politician and minister in Northern Ireland, was born on 23 November 1876 in Strandtown Belfast. He was the son of Richard Dawson Bates, solicitor and Clerk of the Crown, and Mary Dill. His paternal grandfather, John Bates (d. 1855), had been a minor figure in the Conservative Party in Belfast, before his duties were discharged on a Chancery Court ruling of maladministration.

Bates played a prominent role in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the major unionist political party in Northern Ireland. He served as a Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and held various ministerial positions. Bates was known for his staunch unionist views and his dedication to maintaining Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

He served as Minister of Home Affairs from 1939 to 1943, and later as Minister of Education from 1943 to 1963, making significant contributions to policies in these areas. Bates was a central figure during a time of significant political and social change in Northern Ireland.

Bates was also a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of County Down.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1919 New Year Honours, Knight Bachelor in 1921 and was made a baronet of Magherabuoy, near Portrush, in County Londonderry on 7 June 1937.

Bates was a director and president of Glentoran Football Club

In his retirement strained financial circumstances and security (he constantly required a police escort) led him to rent Butleigh House, near Glastonbury, Somerset. It was here he died in 1949; Bates’ body was flown back to Ulster for burial at Ballywillan Church of Ireland.