The Kangaroo Island Courier (Kingscote, SA : 1907 - 1951) Saturday 20 June 190894428

DEATH OF AN OLD PIONEER
ISLANDER.  
Just before going to press we were
informed that an old and respected
resident of Kangaroo Island in the
person of Mr E. S. Bates senr., of
Hog Bay, had died yesterday. No
other details are to hand and, as the
information as been received so late
we are prevented from giving a sketch
of Mr. Bates life in this issue. His
wife pre-deceasod him some years ago at the age of 75.

Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931) Saturday 27 June 190894429

Mr. E. S. Bates, sen.  
The death of Mr. E. S. Bates, sen., on
Friday week, removed one of the oldest and
best known of Kangaroo Island pioneers.
Deceased was born in Derbyshire, England,
on November 20, 1819, so that at the time
of his death he was in his eighty-ninth
year. Before coming to Australia Mr.
Bates carried on farming near Brighton,
Sussex. Here it was that he first heard
of the possibilities of success as a farmer in
Australia, so with his wife and family of
seven children he took a passage in the
ship Melbourne which arrived at Port Ade-
laide, after a three months' voyage, in
1858. He first obtained employment in
the sawmills at Cygnet River, Kangaroo
Island, which were carried on by Messrs.
Gouger & Boxall, for the purpose of supply-
ing some of the sleepers for the Adelaide
to Gawler Railway. A sojourn of 18
months on Kangaroo Island preceded a
removal to Victoria to try his luck, but
his expectations not being fulfilled, he re-
turned to South Australia, and purchased
for cash a section of land at Hog Bay
from the Government without having even
seen it. The trip from Port Adelaide
was done in the cutter Breezes, and on his
arrival deceased found the section he had
bought to be a very good one. Hard
work and energy made his farm profit-
able, and his holdings gradually in-
creased, till at the time of his death he
was one of the largest owners of free-
hold land on the island. There being no  
clergyman on the island when Mr. Bates
arrived he at once set to work to rectify
this, and to that end he wrote to the late
Baroness Burdett-Coutts, in England (with
whom he had attended school). The
Baroness thereupon endowed the church
at Hog Bay with an annuity of £40, and
from that time the spiritual wants of
Kangaroo Islanders have been well at-
tended to. Deceased was a regular atten-
dant at the Methodist Church up to
within a few weeks of his death. He has
left three sons—Mr. G. J. Bates (of Kings-
cote), and Messrs. E. S. Bates, jun., and
H. F. Bates (of Hog Bay)—and one  
daughter, Mrs. Bainbridge, also of Hog
Bay, 30 grandchildren, and 30 great grand-
children. His wife predeceased him 15