Born in London, 25 April 1859, the eldest child of John Batterham, who was in charge of the antique department of Maple and Co, and Elizabeth Jane Drawbridge, his wife. He was educated at the North London collegiate school and entered Westminster Hospital in 1876. He gained certificates of honour for general proficiency during his first and second years at the hospital, and a scholarship in his second year, the Chadwick prize in 1880, and the Frederick Bird medal in 1881. He was assistant house surgeon in 1880 and, after gaining honours in medicine and forensic medicine at the London University in 1882, filled the offices of house physician, chloroformist, and obstetric assistant at the hospital and of assistant demonstrator of anatomy in the medical school. He was house physician at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest and from 1884 to 1886 was house surgeon at the South Staffordshire Hospital, Wolverhampton. He settled in general practice at St Leonards-on-Sea in 1887 in succession to J D Penhall, MD, and remained there until 1916, when he retired to the neighbouring village of Northiam on account of failing health due to diabetes. He was elected assistant surgeon to the East Sussex Hospital at Hastings in 1889, becoming full surgeon in 1903 and consulting surgeon with a seat on the general committee in June 1916. In 1913 he was vice-president of the section of surgery at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association which was held at Brighton in that year. He married in 1892 Mabel Caroline (d 1903), the only daughter of Bruce and Caroline Campbell of Clive Vale, Hastings. He died at St Leonards-on-Sea on 21 March 1933, survived by his son, who was a Fellow of the College, and three daughters; two of his sons were killed in the war of 1914-18. Batterham is described as a man of sound judgement, painstaking and of infinite patience. He was president of the East Sussex Medico-chirurgical Society, but made no contribution to the literature of this profession.