Basic Biographical Details

Name: John Frederick La Trobe Bateman
Designation:  
Born: 30 May 1810
Died: 10 June 1889
Bio Notes: John Frederick La Trobe Bateman was born John Frederick Bateman at Lower Wyke, Halifax, on 30 May 1810, the eldest son of John Bateman, a manufacturer and financially unsuccessful inventor and his wife Mary Agnes La Trobe, daughter of Benjamin La Trobe, Moravian missionary and granddaughter of Benjamin La Trobe Senior (1728-86), head of the Moravian congregation in England: the English-American architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe [sic] was her uncle. Because of problems at home John Frederic was sent to Moravian schools as a boarder from the age of seven.

In 1825 Bateman was articled to ____ Dunn, a mining engineer at Oldham. He set up practice as a civil engineer in 1833, his first major commission being an investigation of flooding on the River Medlock. In the following year the Manchester engineer William Fairbairn invited him to undertake the necessary surveys for the Bann reservoirs in Northern Ireland. Their acquaintance led to Bateman's marriage to Fairbairn's daughter Anne on 1 September 1841. A series of commissions for water supply works and dams in Yorkshire and Westmoreland in the early 1840s resulted in him taking over the Manchester Water Works from Thomas Hawksley; and that in turn led to him being retained by Glasgow Town Council to advise on the City's water supply. He recommended Loch Katrine as a source and his opinion was endorsed by Richard Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Loch Katrine Act was obtained in 1855; work commenced in the spring of 1856 and was completed in 1859. The scheme included a number of conduit aqueducts and one major architectural work, the sluice house at Loch Venacher which provided compensation water.

Bateman's increasing fame as a water engineer induced him to move from Manchester to 16 Great George Street, Westminster, in 1859 and set up house at Moor Park, Farnham. The Manchester office then became a branch. His practice had now spread to southern England and Ireland and eventually included major water supply schemes for Naples, Constantinople, Buenos Aires and Colombo.

In Scotland Bateman was consulting engineer for major improvements to the water supply at Greenock (1873) and Perth (1880) and completely new schemes at Inverness (1875-77) and Forfar (1881). The largest of these later Scottish schemes should have been Dundee which proved to be an unhappy experience for all concerned. In 1869 the Town Council obtained an act authorising it to take over the Dundee Water Company, whose engineer was James Leslie, formerly Dundee's harbour engineer. The town's water commissioners appointed Bateman as their engineer and provided him with reports by the burgh engineer John Fulton and the Edinburgh engineer James W Stewart of Stewart & Menzies who recommended drawing water from the River Isla, and from Leslie who recommended the Loch of Lintrathen as providing a better and purer supply. Bateman concurred with Leslie's recommendation and produced a scheme which received the royal assent in 1871; but the commissioners then obtained a further report from Stewart who recommended substituting a direct line of cast-iron pipes instead of the gentler fall achieved by a combination of pipes, reservoirs and aqueducts proposed by Bateman. At a meeting of the commissioners in October Stewart's direct line was approved, although William Robertson, its mill engineer convener, strongly dissented. In an unsolicited report of January 1872 Bateman set out the problems of the unprecedented pressures which would arise from Stewart's scheme and proposed a direct line of his own with lesser gradients: he also refuted allegations of extravagance. Leslie then proposed a partial modification of Stewart's scheme but Stewart declined to change it, as did the Commissioners. The pipes burst and the joints leaked as Bateman and Robertson predicted and the scheme had to be modified under powers obtained in the Dundee Water (Additional Powers) Act of 1874.

Bateman was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1877 to 1879 and was admitted FRS on 7 June 1860. In 1880 he took into partnership George Henry Hill who had been his assistant since 1843 and had been in charge of the Manchester office from 1861. Hill became increasingly independent of the London office and in 1888 the partnership was dissolved. Bateman then took his son-in-law Richard Clere Parsons and his own son Lee La Trobe Bateman into partnership.

Bateman adopted the additional surname of La Trobe in 1883. He died at Moor Park on 10 June 1889.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
 AddressTypeDate fromDate toNotes
Item 1 of 5Lower Wyke, Halifax, Yorkshire, EnglandPrivate1810  
Item 2 of 5Oldham, Lancashire, EnglandBusiness1825After 1833As apprentice to ____ Dunn
Item 3 of 5Manchester, EnglandBusinessEarly 1840s1859 
Item 4 of 516, Great George Street, Westminster, London, EnglandBusiness1859  
Item 5 of 5Moor Park, Farnham, Surrey, EnglandPrivateAfter 18591889 

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate fromDate toPositionNotes
Item 1 of 1___ Dunn1825Before 1833Apprentice 

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 81856Basin House, on Glasgow Corporation Water Works conduitAberfoyle PerthshireScotland 
Item 2 of 81856Duchray Valley AqueductsAberfoyle PerthshireScotland 
Item 3 of 81856Line of towers on Glasgow Corporation Water ConduitAberfoyle PerthshireScotland 
Item 4 of 81856Loch Venacher Sluice HouseLoch Venacher PerthshireScotland 
Item 5 of 81873Water supply improvementsGreenock RenfrewshireScotlandAs Consulting Engineer
Item 6 of 81875Water supply schemeInverness Inverness-shireScotlandAs Consulting Engineer
Item 7 of 81880Water supply improvementsPerth PerthshireScotlandAs Consulting Engineer
Item 8 of 81881Water supply schemeForfar AngusScotlandAs Consulting Engineer

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 2Binnie, G M1981Early Victorian Water Engineers   
Item 2 of 2New DNB New Dictionary of National Biography   

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
 Periodical NameDateEditionPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 1Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers1890 or 1890XCVII pp 393-4