Yeates was born at Dulwich, and educated at Colfe's School where according to Henry Williamson he used to read Keats under the desk during Maths, explored woods, fields and ponds and kept a tame tawny owl/ Yeates joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in 1916 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force) in May 1917. Serving with No. 46 Squadron, to which he was posted in February 1918, he flew 248 hours in Sopwith Camels, crashed four times, was shot down twice and scored five victories thereby achieving "ace" status. After the war, he died of tuberculosis in Fairlight Sanatorium at Hastings in 1934. He was survived by his wife Norah Phelps Yeates (n�e Richards) and his four children Mary, Joy Elinor (later married hristopher David Vowles), Guy Maslin (later married Binnie Yeates) and Rosalind (later married Edward Cullinan); all of whom had lived with Yeates in a small house in Kent on the Sidcup by-pass of the Dover Road.