Canal, and wrote a long report of his visit, which was read to the Society on 6 Jan. 1870, and published in the ‘Proceedings.’ In the winter of 1870–1 he visited Buenos Ayres, 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 afterwards employed to design and carry out the drainage and water supply of the city. In 1874 he prepared water schemes for Naples and Constantinople, and he was also engineer for some reclamation schemes in Spain and Majorca. The crown agents to the colonies employed him in Ceylon to design and carry out works for supplying Colombo with water.
For forty-eight years, from 1833 to 1881, Bateman directed his business alone. From 1881 to 1885 he was in partnership with George Hill, and in 1888 he took as partners his son-in-law, Richard Clere Parsons, and his son, Lee La Trobe Bateman. Bateman was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 23 June 1840, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London on 7 June 1860. He was president of the Institution in 1878 and 1879. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Geographical Society, the Geological Society, the Society of Arts, and the Royal Institution. In 1883 he assumed by royal license the prefix, surname, and arms of La Trobe, in compliment to his grandfather.
Bateman died on 10 June 1889 at his residence, Moor Park, Farnham, an estate which he had purchased in 1859. On 1 Sept. 1841 he married Anne, only daughter of Sir William Fairbairn. By her he had three sons and four daughters.
[Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1888–9, xcvii. 392–8; Biograph, 1881, vi. 103; Proceedings of the Royal Soc. of London, 1889, vol. xlvi. pp. xlii–xlviii; Burke's Landed Gentry.]
BATEMAN-CHAMPAIN, Sir JOHN UNDERWOOD (1835–1887), colonel, royal (late Bengal) engineers, son of Colonel Agnew Champain of the 9th foot (d. 1876), was born in Gloucester Place, London, on 22 July 1835. Educated at Cheltenham College and for a short time in fortification and military drawing at the Edinburgh Military Academy under Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel Sir) Henry Yule [q. v.], he passed through the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe at the head of his term, receiving the Pollock medal. He obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Bengal engineers on 11 June 1853. His further commissions were dated: lieutenant 13 July 1857, captain 1 Sept. 1863, major 5 July 1872, lieutenant-colonel 31 Dec. 1878, and colonel 31 Dec. 1882. He assumed the name of Bateman in addition to that of Champain in 1872 on succeeding to the estate of Halton Park, Lancashire.
After the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham he went to India in 1854. While acting as assistant principal of the Thomason college at Rurki in 1857 the Indian mutiny broke out, and he at once saw active service under Colonel (afterwards General Sir) Archdale Wilson [q. v.], was adjutant of sappers and miners at the actions at Ghazi-ud-din-Nagar on the Hindun river on 30 and 31 May, at Badli-ke-Serai under Major-general Bernard on 8 June, and at the capture of the ridge in front of Delhi. During the siege of Delhi Champain took his full share of general engineer work in addition to his duties as adjutant, and one of the siege batteries was named after him by order of the chief engineer in acknowledgment of his services. He was wounded by a grape shot on 13 Sept., but, although still on the sick list, volunteered for duty on 20 Sept., and was present at the capture of the palace of Delhi.
Champain commanded the head-quarters detachment of Bengal sappers during the march to Agra, at the capture of Fathpur Sikri, and in numerous minor expedtions. He commanded a mixed force of nearly two thousand men on the march from Agra to Fathgarh, where he joined the commander-in-chief in December 1857. He commanded the sappers during the march to Cawnpore and to the Alambagh, reverting to the adjutancy in March 1858, when he joined the force under Sir James Outram [q. v.] for the siege of Lucknow by Lord Clyde. During the siege he thrice acted as orderly officer to Sir Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala [q. v.], by whom he was especially thanked for holding with Captain Medley and one hundred sappers for a whole night the advanced post of Shah Najif, which had been abandoned.
After the capture of Lucknow he erected some twenty fortified posts for outlying detachments. In April he was specially employed under Brigadier-general (afterwards Sir) John Douglas in the Ghazipur and Shahabad districts, was present in fourteen minor engagements, and was thanked in despatches for his services at the action of Balia. He joined in the pursuit of the mutineers, who, after incessant marching and fighting, were driven to the Kaimur Hills and finally defeated and broken up at Salia
