VC Action
Yate was 42 years old, and a major in the 2nd Battalion, The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, during the First World War when the following deed took place during the battle of Le Cateau for which he was awarded the VC.
On 26 August 1914 at Le Cateau, France, Major Yate commanded one of the two companies that remained to the end in the trenches, and when all other officers had been killed or wounded and ammunition exhausted, he led his 19 survivors against the enemy in a charge. He at Targau POW Camp. He was captured by the Germans and interned in a prisoner of war camp. After repeated attempts, he escaped a month later on 19 September 1914, but was quickly apprehended by local factory workers who suspected his appearance, and cut his own throat to avoid recapture and possible execution as a spy. He died on 20 September 1914.
Four other VCs were won that day at Le Cateau, including one by Lance Corporal Frederick William Holmes.
Yate is buried in grave II. G. 8. at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Berlin South-Western Cemetery in Stahnsdorf, near Potsdam, Germany.
Read more about this topic: Charles Allix Lavington Yate
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)