A RELATIVE of one of the last soldiers from Wiltshire to die in the First World War travelled to France last Saturday (November 10) to lay a wreath on the100th anniversary of his death.

Donald Robert Keates is believed to be the last man from Bradford on Avon to die before the guns fell silent on Armistice Day November 11, 1918.

He tragically died on

November 10 from pneumonia and is buried at the

Terlincthun Cemetery, Wimille, near Boulogne in northern France.

His great nephew, Donald Keates, travelled to Wimille on Saturday on the 100th anniversary of D R Keates’ death to lay a wreath on his grave.

Mr Keates, of Horse Road, Hilperton, said: “To die in service, on the last day of the war, is tragic. Even more so as it was not of injuries sustained in a final battle.

“We believe he was the last man from West Wiltshire to die in WW1, as no local men died later in the war on Armistice Day itself.”

Donald Robert Keates, 26, was the son of a blacksmith, Ebenezer Keates and his wife Rosina, and was born in North Bradley in 1892.

He inherited his father’s practical abilities and was highly regarded locally as a mechanic who repaired

bicycles, motorcycles and

vehicles.

After being involved in a short partnership known as Perkins & Keates motor and cycle repairs he established his own garage business in 1910 in Bradford-on-Avon aged only 18.

When the First World War broke out, he initially wasn’t sent to fight as his garage business in St Margaret’s Street, Bradford on Avon, was regarded as an important

service in the town.

But he eventually went to France as a Private with the Royal Army Service Corps, where he helped transport men, supplies and the injured to and from the front lines.

Having endured the cold and wet of northern France, Mr Keates was taken ill and died in hospital.The very next day the Armistice declaration was signed and the war ended.

His name is engraved on war memorials in North Bradley and Bradford on Avon, as well as his parents’ grave at West Ashton.

The D R Keates business continued to flourish for almost a century, with a new Q8 service station premises being built in Frome Road, now demolished to make way for housing.

Mr Keates’ two brothers and a sister also served in the First World War, the latter in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

He still has family in the local area, including his great nephew Donald at Hilperton, who ran the Frome Road garage with his business partner, the late Stephen Keates, as well as Donald Jnr’s three sisters Anne, Margaret and Mary and Stephen’s sisters Jane, Alison and Jenny.

D R Keates’ legacy still lives on and his great-great nephew, Oliver Keates, has set up a car and van repair business, with his father, in Hilperton.

There is a photograph of the garage in St Margaret’s Street on display there in remembrance of D R Keates.