De Witt Batty

Francis de Witt Batty OBE (known as De Witt;^[1] 10 January 1879 – 3 April 1961^[2]) was the 7th Anglican Bishop of Newcastle in Australia from 1931 until his retirement in 1958.

The Right Reverend Francis de Witt Batty
7th Bishop of Newcastle
Batty laying the foundation stone of St George's Church, Hamilton, in 1956
Church	Anglican Church of Australia
Province	New South Wales
Diocese	Newcastle
Installed	3 March 1931
Predecessor	George Long
Successor	James Housden
Other post(s)	Dean of Brisbane
Personal details
Born	10 January 1879 London, England
Died	3 April 1961 Sydney, New South Wales
Buried	St John's Anglican Cemetery, Morpeth
Nationality	British-Australian
Denomination	Anglicanism

Early life

De Witt Batty was born in 1879, the son of the Rev William Edmund Batty and his wife Frances Beatrice, née Jebb,^[1] the daughter of Sir Joshua Jebb. He was named after his mother's ancestor, the Dutch patriot Johan de Witt.^[1] He was educated at St Paul's School, London and Balliol College, Oxford.^[3]

Clerical career

Batty trained for ordination at Wells Theological College, and was ordained deacon in 1903 and priest in 1904.^[1] His first position was as a curate at Hornsey where he was asked a year later by the outgoing rector, St Clair Donaldson, to accompany him as his chaplain when Donaldson was appointed Archbishop of Brisbane.^[4] From 1909 to 1916 he edited the Brisbane Church Chronicle.^[1] In 1915 he was appointed a residential canon at St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and in 1925 the cathedral's dean. He was consecrated a bishop on 25 January 1930 by Gerald Sharp, Archbishop of Brisbane,^[5] to serve as coadjutor bishop of Brisbane.^[6] He once called his see "the most enviable diocese in Australia".^[1]

Batty retired to Double Bay, Sydney, and died on 3 April 1961. He was cremated and his ashes interred with William Tyrrell at St John's Anglican Cemetery, Morpeth. In his obituary in The Times, he was described as being "one of the most outstanding Englishmen ever to dedicate his life to public service in Australia".^[7]