Frederick Blantford Bate was an American broadcaster of the early 20th century, and was a representative for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
in Britain during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in 1886. His first marriage was to the Chicago candy-manufacturing heiress Sally K. Plows (1889-1947), that ended in divorce on the grounds of his desertion.
He was active with the first automobile ambulance service during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and was a mechanical officer, involved with the organization of the first American Ambulance that became an
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
service connected with the First World War armies in the field.American Ambulance in WW I /ref>Andrew, Adam Piatt: Friends of France: The Field Service of the American Ambulance Described By Its Members, Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916, Chapter XV. During his time in France he met Vera Arkwright, who was serving at the American hospital in Paris. They married in 1916. Their daughter Bridget was born in France in November 1917. Fred and Vera divorced in 1929.
Bate had served on a War Reparations Committee headed by
Owen D. Young
Owen D. Young (October 27, 1874July 11, 1962) was an American industrialist, businessman, lawyer and diplomat at the Second Reparations Conference (SRC) in 1929, as a member of the German Reparations International Commission.
He is known for t ...
of
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
, and it was through Young that he had come to the attention of the network. Bate came to know Edward, Prince of Wales, as a result of his marriage in 1916 to Vera Arkwright, who was known to the Prince. This connection became significant for NBC when Edward's relationship with
Wallis Simpson
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986), was an American socialite and wife of the former King Edward VIII. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a ...
threw the British Government into a constitutional crisis. Because of Bate's connections, NBC provided more up-to-the-minute radio coverage of that story than any rival networks.Max Jordan and NBC Bate was the NBC representative in London at the time and had access to the King. ''New York Times'', May 23, 1937 When the story of the king's affair with Wallis Simpson and the possibility of an abdication suddenly broke on a startled world, Bate was on holiday in New York. The fastest way back to London then took five days. He telephoned
Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke (born Alfred Cooke; 20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster was done primarily in the United States.Broadcasting House and beam over a news dispatch for NBC before the midnight circuit, which the rival radio network,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, had booked. Cooke did so, and for the next 10 days of the abdication crisis he broadcast to America six or seven times a day.Obituary: Alistair Cooke /ref>
In 1940, Bate was wounded by shrapnel when a bomb hit NBC's offices in London during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. He returned to work after spending 10 days in a hospital. At the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
Bate moved back to the United States. He died, at Waterford, Virginia, in October 1970.