Green’s Dictionary of Slang

been to see Captain Bates? phr.

[proper name of Captain Bates, noted as a well-known late 19C London prison governor, although no references emerge in press]

a greeting to a person one knows or suspects to have been in prison.

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[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 63/2: Captain Bates (Been to see) ? (Thieves’ and Street). A satirical enquiry of the ‘How d’ ye do?’ character – applied to a gentleman once more restored to ungrateful society after a term in jail. Captain Bates was a well-known metropolitan prison-governor.