Harold Blacow Yates was born on 17 May 1896 and was educated at Downing College, Cambridge where he graduated BA with honours in 1920, and at St George's Hospital where he qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1919 and then took the Cambridge MB BCh in 1921. At St George's he won prizes for bacteriology and surgery, and in 1922 he obtained the FRCS. Yates then moved to the Royal Hospital, Sheffield where he was appointed resident surgical officer and in 1926 honorary surgeon. He continued to serve this hospital as surgeon and an admirable trainer of his juniors until he retired in 1961. Yates also held appointments in Barnsley and Bakewell and was a member of the Moynihan Club. His chief interest outside his professional work was in football, and he ultimately became chairman of the Sheffield United Football Club. He had a very happy family life, and his wife's death in 1967 was a misfortune from which he never recovered. His own final years were complicated by incurable illness from which he died in the hospital he had served so well on 16 November 1969.