Ernest Henry Charles Yates

E H C Yates (known as Ernie) played for Guernsey in the Inter Insular in 1957 but he had an interesting additional skill. He was born in Wandsworth on 18 January 1915 and died at Albecq, Castel on 19 March 1980. He represented Great Britain at figure skating at the 1936 Olympic Games in Garnish-Partenkirchen in Germany. He competed in the pairs competition  on Thursday 13 February 1936 with Rosemarie Stewart from Suffolk. After the Olympics she married Robert Dench. They finished 10th out of 18 pairs with a score of 9.0.

Ernie had a brother Geoffrey Sidney born on 16 May 1918 and died 14 December 2007. Interestingly he also competed at the 1936 games in the men’s solo event aged 17. He finished 16th out of 25. Geoffrey served in the Royal Marines in WWII and was part of the Normandy invasion. He rose through the ranks being a temporary lieutenant on 1st June 1940, a temporary captain on 1st March 1943 and a temporary major on 10th May 1945. He continued to officiate as a figure skating judge and referee.

They were both bank clerks and were both on the electoral role for Wandsworth in 1939.

He was aged 42 when he played in the Inter Insular but that would not have been remarkable. He did not receive a ‘cap’ in 1960 when they were given out by the GCA, being one of two players missing from any of the teams. This was rectified when the caps were numbered so that both Yates and PK Smith were included.