Born in Manchester, where his father owned print works. He was apprenticed to Walter Dunlop, of Rochdale, and after graduating in Edinburgh settled in practice in Ardwick by the advice of Sir James Lomax Bardsley, Consulting Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who had been struck by his paper on diabetes. Bates enjoyed an extensive practice in Ardwick, and won the unbounded confidence and affection of his patients. Despite his laborious life he was a great reader and formed definite and original opinions. He was fertile in resource, prompt in action, and in temper most amiable – “Kindness was the law of his life.” For some three years before his death he passed calculi and suffered from epileptiform fits on the occasion of their evacuation, but he died unexpectedly, after returning from a holiday and resuming his busy practice, on Sept 9th, 1874, at his residence, 6 Stockport Road, Manchester. His medical attendant elaborately described his illness and post-mortem in the Lancet. His photograph is in the College Collections. He was a member of the Royal Medical and Hunterian Societies of Edinburgh.