Born at Lincoln, 23 February 1855, the third son and sixth of the nineteen children of John Richard Battle, of Potter Hanworth, wholesale chemists at Lincoln, and Rebecca Scoley, his wife. His father held a good position in Lincoln, where he was an alderman and served as mayor of the city. Battle was educated at Lincoln Grammar School and entered St Thomas's Hospital in 1873. Here he had a distinguished student career, ending as Solly medalist. He served as house surgeon 1877, house physician 1878, resident accoucheur 1879, surgical registrar 1881-86, and resident medical officer at St Thomas's nursing home. He was elected assistant surgeon to the hospital in December 1891 after a contest with Sir Charles Ballance, when the merits of the two candidates were thought to be so evenly balanced that Battle was placed first and an additional assistant surgeoncy was made for Ballance. He succeeded to the full surgeoncy in December 1900, lectured on practical surgery and retired in 1925, when he was appointed consulting surgeon. From 1903 to 1911 he was editor of the St Thomas's Hospital Reports. He was elected assistant surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital on 7 June 1888, surgeon in January 1897, and was demonstrator of practical surgery in the School of Medicine for Women until January 1901, when he resigned on being appointed surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital. He continued his early obstetrical work as surgeon to the dispensary for women in Shadwell, and was assistant surgeon at the East London Hospital for Children from 31 May 1888 to 9 February 1892. He married on 30 May 1892 Anna Marguerite Vulliamy, who survived him with three sons and two daughters. He died on 2 February 1936 at Gorselands, Horsell Common, Woking, Surrey. Battle was an expert operator, excelling in diagnosis, and a good teacher of students. He drew attention to the post-auricular and subconjunctival ecchymosis which so often marked a fracture of the base of the skull, and introduced the method of retracting the rectus abdominis muscle when operating for appendicitis. The one is called "Battle's sign", the other "Battle's incision". From 1892 he acted as editor of "A Mirror of hospital practice", which was for many years a feature of *The Lancet*; in this position he succeeded Sir John Tweedy. The greater part of his life was spent in serving St Thomas's Hospital. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Hunterian professor of surgery for the year 1889-90, when he gave three lectures on "Some points relating to injuries of the head". These Hunterian lectures brought together in readable form a great deal of valuable information. During the war of 1914-18 he was attached to No 5 London general hospital, which was retained at St Thomas's, and held the rank of lieutenant-colonel, RAMC (T). Publications:- *The surgery of the diseases of the appendix vermiformis and their complications*, with E M Corner. London, 1904. This was a useful clinical handbook, which laid down clearly and authoritatively the lines then governing the treatment of appendicitis. *The acute abdomen*. London, 1911, 2nd ed. 1914. The volume originated in a series of clinical lectures delivered at St Thomas's Hospital in 1906. It gives a detailed account of the difficulties presented by cases of appendicitis, intestinal obstruction, intussusception, perforation, and gynaecological inflammation, and indicates the broad lines of treatment. Battle's personal knowledge ranged almost from the times when operative interference on abdominal lesions was looked upon as a last resort and he was thus able to tell the story graphically.