Mayor of Hackney 1933-34. The picture shows him (the mayor on the left) at the 1934 ceremony to bury a 'time capsule', a brass canister, below the foundation stone of the current Town Hall in Mare Street, which replaced a Victorian building. In 2015 Hackney Today reported on this canister being unearthed by builders. The excitement! What did it contain? Council agendas; a programme for the foundation stone ceremony; and the Hackney Borough Council Act 1931.
Our colleague Andrew Behan has researched Yates: Charles Fisher Yates was born on 29 April 1883 in Hackney, the son of Charles and Mary Eleanor Yates. He was baptised as an adult on 6 April 1901 at Christ Church, Clapton. In 1903 he married Mabel Rickard in Hackney. On 28 January 1909 he applied to be admitted to the Freedom of the City of London by redemption and this was granted on 4 February 1909. He gave his address as 123 Cazenove Road, Stoke Newington, occupying premises at 38 London Road, Clapton and his occupation as Managing Director of Yates & Sons Ltd, Dyer & Cleaners. Electoral registers from 1909 to 1914 show him at 38 London Road, Hackney. The 1911 census confirms him living at 38 London Road, Clapton, with his wife, Mabel Yates, their two sons, Dennis Yates and Charles Walter Yates and daughter, Alice Vera Yates. There was also a female servant living at the property.
On 19 April 1912 he was initiated as Freemason in the London Rifle Brigade Lodge, No.1962, claiming to be living in Edmonton. The 1914 and 1915 electoral registers show his address as 167 Church Street, Lower Edmonton. His wife died in 1915 and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington.
In 1918 he remarried, to a Lily Nicholson, and electoral registers from 1919 to 1930 show his address to 27-29 Avenue Road, Hackney and those from 1932 show them at 45 Downs Road, Clapton. He and his wife departed from Southampton aboard the White Star Line ship 'Olympic', a sister ship of the ill fated 'Titanic', on 3 May 1922 bound for New York and returned aboard the Cunard Line ship 'Soythia' arriving on 1 July 1922 in Liverpool. They also left Dover on 14 October 1922 on board the Royal Netherlands West India Mail ship 'Van Rensselaer' bound for Cristobal, West Indies. A further trip was made when they departed Avonmouth on 30 November 1929 aboard the passenger carrying banana boat 'Camito' of the Elders & Fyffes Ltd line for Kingston, Jamaica, returning on a boat of the same company, the 'Carare', arriving back in Avonmouth on 20 January 1930.
Telephone directories in the 1930's show both Yates & Co Ltd and Yates & Sons (1933) Ltd listing many Dyer & Dry Cleaning trading establishments across London and the Home Counties. The 1939 England and Wales Register, confirms him and his wife living at 45 Downs Road. Probate records inform that although his home address remained as 45 Downs Road, Clapton, he died, aged 61 years, on 2 February 1945 at 116 Norfolk Avenue, Sanderstead, Surrey and when probate was granted to his widow, Lily Yates, his effects totalled £7,462-17s-3d. He was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington.
