John Frederic Bateman

John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (30 May 1810 – 10 June 1889) was an English civil engineer whose work formed the basis of the modern United Kingdom water supply industry.

Bateman served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Britain in 1878 and 1879.

In 1883, Bateman assumed his mother's family surname of La Trobe, by royal licence, becoming John Frederic La Trobe Bateman.

Later works In 1855 he wrote a paper for the British Association, On the present state of our Knowledge on the Supply of Water to Towns, enunciating the nature of the problem, outlining previous measures, enumerating sources from which towns could be supplied, and discussing their merits. In 1865 he published a pamphlet On the Supply of Water to London from the Sources of the River Severn, a scheme he designed and surveyed at his own expense. A royal commission in 1868 reported in favour of the project, a gravitation scheme to convey 230 million gallons of water a day to the city.

Bateman was connected with harbour and dock trusts throughout the British Isles, including the Clyde Navigation Trust, for which he was consulting engineer, and the Shannon Inundation Inquiry in 1863, on which he was employed by government.

In addition to undertakings at home Bateman carried out several works abroad. In 1869 in a pamphlet Channel Railway, written with Julian John Révy, he proposed to construct a submarine railway between France and England in a cast-iron tube. In the same year he represented the Royal Society at the opening of the Suez Canal, and wrote a report of his visit, which was read to the Society on 6 January 1870, and published in the Proceedings. In winter 1870 he visited Buenos Aires, at the request of the Argentine government, for the purpose of laying out harbour works for that city. His plans were not adopted, but he was employed to design and carry out drainage and water supply works for the city.

In 1874 he prepared water supply schemes for Naples and Constantinople, and was engineer for reclamation schemes in Spain and Majorca. Crown agents in the colonies employed him in Ceylon to design works to supply Colombo with water.

Alongside his assistant, Alfred Moore, he developed the Bateman and Moore's Firecock which was adopted in many large cities and towns.

Personal life On 1 September 1841 Bateman married Anne, only daughter of William Fairbairn, and they had three sons and four daughters. In 1883 he assumed by royal licence the prefix, surname, and arms of La Trobe, in compliment to his grandfather. Bateman died on 10 June 1889 at his home, Moor Park in Farnham, an estate he bought in 1859.

Commemorations

In 1955 a street in Sa Pobla, Mallorca was given the name Bateman commemorating his works in Albufera de Mallorca. In November 2005 a commemoration stone was laid at the Milngavie Waterworks by the Institution of Civil Engineers (right). On 15 September 2000, the leader of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside unveiled a blue plaque on the deepest air shaft of the Mottram Tunnel, a long pipeline connecting the valleys of the Etherow and the Tame. The plaque is inscribed: