Born in Ireland in 1870, he was educated at Queen's College, Belfast and the University of Edinburgh. After a period on the staff of the Department of Anatomy at Newcastle, he became a senior demonstrator in the Department of Anatomy at Birmingham University. In 1915 he was appointed head of the Department of Anatomy at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and in 1920 the University of London designated the post a professorial chair. In 1924 the chair was endowed by S A Courtauld and Yeates became the first Courtauld Professor. Between the wars the classes designed for candidates for the Primary FRCS and conducted by Professors Yeates and Samson Wright became world famous and were particularly sought after by men from Australasia. He died at his home at Bridgwater, Somerset on 20 November 1962 aged 92.