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Basic Biographic Details
Name:
John Frederick La Trobe Bateman
Designation :
Engineer
Date of Birth:
Exact Date
Exact DOB:
30/05/1810
Year of Birth :
Circa Year of Birth :
Date of Birth Before (Year):
Date of Birth After (Year):
DOB (1st 'Or' Year):
DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):
Date of Death:
Exact Date
Exact DOD:
06/10/1889
Year of Death:
Circa Year of Death:
Date of Death Before (Year):
Date of Death After (Year):
DOD (1st 'Or' Year):
DOD (2nd 'Or' Year):
Town of Birth :
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.
Bio Notes continued...
Additional Notes
Addresses
The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:
Private Addresses
Private Addresses2 classic
Address
Class
Date From Char
Date From Type
Date To Char
Date To Type
Notes
Lower Wyke Halifax Yorkshire England
Private
Moor Park Farnham Surrey England
Private
row(s) 1 - 2 of 2
Business Addresses
Business Addresses2 classic
Address
Class
Date From
Date From Type
Date To
Date To Type
Notes
Oldham Lancashire England
Business
1825
After 1833
As apprentice to ____ Dunn
Manchester England
Business
Early 184
1859
16 Great George Street Westminster London England
Business
1859
row(s) 1 - 3 of 3
Employment and Training
The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this person (click on an item to view details):
Employers2 classic
Name
Name Link
Date From
Date To
Position
Notes
___ Dunn
100414
In year 1825
Before 1833
Apprentice
row(s) 1 - 1 of 1
Buildings and Designs
This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
Buildings and Designs2 classic
Building Name
Date Started
Town, District or Village
Island
City or County
Country
Notes
Duchray Valley Aqueducts
In year 1856
Aberfoyle
Perthshire
Scotland
Line of towers on Glasgow Corporation Water Conduit
In year 1856
Aberfoyle
Perthshire
Scotland
Basin House, on Glasgow Corporation Water Works conduit
In year 1856
Aberfoyle
Perthshire
Scotland
Loch Venacher Sluice House
In year 1856
Loch Venacher
Perthshire
Scotland
Water supply improvements
In year 1873
Greenock
Renfrewshire
Scotland
As Consulting Engineer
Water supply scheme
In year 1875
Inverness
Inverness-shire
Scotland
As Consulting Engineer
Water supply improvements
In year 1880
Perth
Perthshire
Scotland
As Consulting Engineer
Water supply scheme
In year 1881
Forfar
Angus
Scotland
As Consulting Engineer
row(s) 1 - 8 of 8
References
Bibliographic References
The following books contain references to this person:
Bib ref classic
Author
Title
Date
Publisher
Part
Notes
Binnie, G M
Early Victorian Water Engineers
1981
New DNB
New Dictionary of National Biography
row(s) 1 - 2 of 2
Periodical References
The following periodicals contain references to this person:
Period ref classic
Periodical Name
Publisher
Date Circ
Edition
Notes
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers
1890|1890
XCVII
pp 393-4
row(s) 1 - 1 of 1