Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/202

 Dahar on 24 Nov. 1858. He received the medal and clasps.

When the mutiny was finally suppressed Champain became executive engineer in the public works department at Goudah, and afterwards at Lucknow, until February 1862, when he was selected to go with Major (Sir) Patrick Stewart [q. v. Suppl.] to Persia on government telegraph duty. At that time there was no electric telegraph to India. The attempt to construct one under a government guarantee had failed, and it was determined to make a line by the Persian Gulf route directly under government. Champain proceeded with Stewart to Bushahr, and thence in June to Teheran, where negotiations were carried on with the Persian government. In 1865 the line was practically completed, and on Stewart's death in that year Champain was appointed to assist Sir Frederic Goldsmid, the chief director of the Indo-European Government Telegraph department. He spent the greater part of 1866 in Turkey, putting the Baghdad part of the line into an efficient state, and in 1867 went to St. Petersburg to negotiate for a special wire through Russia to join the Persian system. This visit gave rise to intimate and friendly relations with General Liiders, director-general of Russian telegraphs, which proved of advantage to the service.

On his way out from England in September 1869, to superintend the laying of a second telegraph cable from Bushahr to Jashk, Champain was nearly drowned in the wreck of the steamship Carnatic off the island of Shadwan in the Red Sea. After coming to the surface he assisted in saving lives and in securing succour. In 1870 he succeeded Sir Frederic Goldsmid as chief director of the government Indo-European telegraph.

In the years from 1870 to 1872 Persia suffered from a severe famine, and Champain took an active interest in the Mansion House relief fund, of which he was for some time secretary. He arranged for its distribution in Persia by the telegraph staff, and had the satisfaction of finding it very well done. His sound judgment and unfailing tact, together with a power of expressing his views clearly and concisely, enabled him to render important service at the periodical international telegraph conferences as the representative of the Indian government. Special questions frequently arose the settlement of which took him to many of the European capitals, and in the ordinary course of his duties he made repeated visits to India, Turkey, Persia, and the Persian Gulf.

In 1884 the shah of Persia presented him with a magnificent sword of honour. In October 1885 Champain went for the last time to the Persian Gulf to lay a third cable between Bushahr and Jashk, afterwards visiting Calcutta to confer with government. On his way home he went to Delhi to see his old friend Sir Frederick (now Earl) Roberts, from whom he learned that he had been made a knight commander of the order of St. Michael and St. George.

He died at San Remo on 1 Feb. 1887. The shah of Persia himself sent a telegram to his family expressing his great regret for the loss of Bateman-Champain, 'qui a laissé tant de souvenirs ineffaçables en Perse,' a very unusual departure from the rigid etiquette of the court of Teheran. He married in 1865 Harriet Sophia, daughter of Sir Frederick Currie, first baronet (d. 1875). She survived her husband with six sons and two daughters of the marriage. Three sons are in the army and one in the navy.

Bateman-Champain was a member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. He was an accomplished draughtsman. In the Albert Hall Exhibition of 1873 a gold medal was awarded to a Persian landscape which he had painted for his friend Sir Robert Murdoch Smith [q. v. Suppl.] Many of the illustrations to Sir Frederic Goldsmid's 'Telegraph and Travel' are from original sketches in water-colour by Bateman-Champain.  BATES, HARRY (1850–1899), sculptor, born at Stevenage, Hertfordshire, on 26 April 1850, was son of Joseph and Anne Bates of that town. As a lad he was apprenticed as carver to Messrs. Bridley & Farmer of 63 Westminster Bridge Road, and worked between 1869 and 1879 on the ornamentation of many churches in course of building or restoration in the provinces. Returning to London, he was able to combine his work with attendance at classes in the Lambeth art school. Jules Dalou was teacher of modelling there, and, although Bates had only three months of his teaching, it is im- 