Dictionary of Indian Biography/Bateman-Champain, Sir John Underwood
BATEMAN-CHAMPAIN, SIR JOHN UNDERWOOD (1835–1887)
Son of Colonel Agnew Champain: born July 22, 1835: educated at Cheltenham, the Edinburgh Military Academy, and Addiscombe: went to India in the Bengal Engineers, 1854: in the mutiny was in the action of Badli-ka-sarai on June 8, 1857, and at the siege and capture of Delhi: was in several other engagements: at the capture of Lucknow in March, 1858, by Sir Colin Campbell: at the taking of Jagdishpur: in 1862 he went to Persia in connection with the Government telegraph system: in 1865, became Assistant to the Director of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, and in 1870 became himself the Director: took the additional name of Bateman: to complete and maintain the through telegraphic communication, he had to travel constantly to Persia, the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Russia and India: in 1869 he narrowly escaped drowning in the wreck of the P. and O. S.S. Carnatic: he was made K.C.M.G. Dec. 31, 1885: was on the Councils of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Society of Telegraph Engineers: died Feb. 1, 1887.