Paddy Roy Bates ( born Paddy Roy Bates ; August 29, 1921 - October 9, 2012) - a British citizen who proclaimed himself September 2, 1967 [1] as the head of his own created virtual state Sealand [2] , which occupies the former artificial naval anti-aircraft platform Defense " Rafs Tower ", built in 1942 in the North Sea near the coast of Great Britain and abandoned in 1956. In the past, a radio journalist leading a pirate radio station , a major in the British Army. “ Admiral General Silenda Prince Roy I Bates” is claiming himself; he declared his family to be the “ princely dynasty ” of Silenda.
| Roy I Bates | |||||||
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| Predecessor | Position established | ||||||
| Successor | Michael I Bates (Prince Regent) | ||||||
| Birth | August 29, 1921  United Kingdom | ||||||
| Death | October 9, 2012 ( 91) | ||||||
| Kind | Bates | ||||||
| Spouse | John I Bates | ||||||
| Children | |||||||
| Military service | |||||||
| Type of army | and | ||||||
| Rank | Colonel | ||||||
| Battles | |||||||
Biography
Born in 1921 in London , England . He served in the British Army , rising to the rank of major [3] . Then he was a fisherman before he started working at a pirate radio station [4] . Married, his wife's name is Joan. Paddy Roy has two children: Penelope (1950) and Michael (1952), who from a young age became a "companion" of his father.
In 1965, Bates ousted Radio City employees from Knock John Tower , the former naval air defense platform of World War II . Using the American army radio beacon remaining on the platform since the war, Bates managed to create his own radio station there [5] . From 1965 to 1966, his station, called Radio Essex by him, became the first pirate radio station to broadcast over 24 hours a day. In October 1966, he changed the name of the station to Britain's Better Music Station (BBMS) , after which he was found guilty of violating the first part of the Wireless Telegraph Act, the Wireless Telegraphy Acts . Bates was fined £ 100 for continuing to broadcast. As a result, on Christmas Day 1966, his pirate station stopped broadcasting .
After that, Bates moved to the neighboring Rafs Tower , another former air defense platform located outside the territorial waters of Great Britain, but, despite the availability of the necessary equipment, it no longer went on the air. On August 14, 1967, the Law of Marine, & c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 came into force, prohibiting broadcasting from offshore platforms, such as the one on which Bates settled [6] . Nineteen days later, on September 2, 1967, he proclaimed the creation of an independent " principality " of Sealand, declaring himself his ruler.
Ronan O'Reilly, leading from another pirate radio station, Radio Caroline , along with a small group of people attempted to storm Bates' platform, but Bates, his son Michael, and their other comrades used Molotov cocktails to stop them. When the British fleet approached the platform, recording the carnage, he was met with warning shots in the air of Michael, the son of Bates, who claimed that they entered the territorial waters of Sealand.
Bates and his son were arrested and accused of illegal possession of weapons, but the court rejected the lawsuit on November 25, 1968, alleging that it did not have jurisdiction to decide international affairs, since the platform was formally located outside the territorial waters of Great Britain. Bates took this as a de facto recognition of the independence of his virtual state and seven years later invented for him a flag, coat of arms, anthem and Constitution [7] .
In 1977, he retired, but remained a "prince." In 1999, abdicated from the " throne " in favor of his son. The last years of his life, Bates lived as a pensioner in England . After Prince Roy’s abdication, the principality was “ruled” by his son Michael I Bates as a “ Prince Regent, ” who in fact also lives in Great Britain. After the death of his father, Michael became the ruling prince of Sealand.
On October 9, 2012, Prince Roy I Bates died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 91 in a nursing home in Essex (UK) [8] .
Notes
- ↑ Ryan, John; Dunford, George; Sellars, Simon. Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations , Lonely Planet Publications, 2006, p. 9-12.
- ↑ Strauss, Erwin. How to Start Your Own Country , Paladin Press, 1999, p. 132, cited in admin (September 20, 2008). "A Brief History of Sealand . " Historia Infinitas. Retrieved 11 May 2011
- ↑ Bermingham, Finbarr (April 5, 2011). An Interview with Prince Michael of Sealand Archived on April 24, 2012. . Scrawls and Bawls. Retrieved 11 May 2011
- ↑ Edwards, Chris; Parkes, James (October 19, 2000). Radio Essex and Britains Better Music Station . Off Shore Echoes. Retrieved 11 May 2011
- ↑ Frank Jacobs. All Hail Sealand . The New York Times (March 20, 2012). Archived on October 19, 2012.
- ↑ Marine, & c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 . The National Archives. Retrieved 11 May 2011
- ↑ “Initial Challenge to Sealand's Sovereignty” Archived July 18, 2011. . Official Website of Sealand. Retrieved 11 May 2011
- ↑ The prince of the self-proclaimed state of Sealand has died
Links
- Belogolovtsev N. “I will sell the state, quickly, cheaply”
- Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, "Republics of the Reefs:" Nation-Building on the Continental Shelf and in the World's Oceans, California Western International Law Journal , vol. 25, no. 1, Fall, 1994