He then joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a radiographer and was commissioned with the rank of Lieutenant (eventually attaining Captain), serving in India until 1920.
Instead, he worked there as a student demonstrator for two years, mostly measuring the gyromagnetic ratio with A. P. Chattock and W. Sucksmith, which sparked an interest in ferromagnetism.
[1] Bates was awarded a studentship by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to study for a doctorate (PhD) at Trinity College, Cambridge; under Sir Ernest Rutherford, he measured long alpha particle emissions of radium, thorium, actinium and polonium, but did not especially enjoy the work.
During World War II, he was a consultant to the Inter-Services Research Bureau (1941–45), and between 1951 and 1972 he was Senior Scientific Adviser for Civil Defence, North Midland Region.
He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1950 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966, and received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the Universities of Nottingham (1972) and Durham (1975).