Date of birth:

August 29th, 1921 (Ealing, United Kingdom)

Date of death:

October 9th, 2012 (Leigh-on-Sea, United Kingdom)

Nationality:

British

Paddy Roy Bates lied about his age to join the army at a young age.
He went to Spain at the age of 15 years to fight for the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.

After his return in the UK he joined the first battalion of the Roral Fusiliers, City of London Regiment.
During the Second World War he was promoted to infantry major and fought in North Africa, Eritrea, Iraqi and Italy.
He was taken prisoner when his aircraft crashed on the island of Rhodes, he tried to escape but was captured by Greek Fascists . He was rescued from a firing squad by a passing German officer.
In Italy he was engaged in the battle of Monte Casino.
During the war he was wounded several times.
When a German stick grenade exploded, smashing his jaw and showering shrapnel in his face, he was told by an Army surgeon that he would never find a wife as he would be so badly disfigured. But as his wounds healed, he met Joan Collins, a former beauty queen from Essex, at a dance, and within three months they had married. He then became a fisherman before moving into pirate radio.
He was involved in setting up the pirate radio station Radio Essex at a different offshore platforms before moving to the abondoned Maunsell Navy Fort HM Fort Roughs (U1), which he renamed Sealand and declared it as independent territory in 1967.

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• - BATES, MICHAEL, Principality of Sealand: Holding the Fort, Principality of Sealand, 2015.
  - the British Empire
  - The Fusilier Museum London
  - BBC, 10 October 2012
  - M. Bates