May Geraldine Frances BATEMAN

  General Notes:

Got second name from finding birth record on ancestry. Previously just 'G'.

1881 Census (age 9) incorrectly indexed on ancestry as 'Bakman'. Living with widowed mother, 5 sisters and 1 visitor (Edward Bayess?, 28, Physcian) and 4 servants at 13 Canonbury Lane, Islington. Occupation; Scholar.

1890; Witness at the wedding of Bernard M Bateman and Alice Hinkson.

1891 Census (age 19) Single. Living at widowed mothers house at 64 Longridge(?) Road, Brompton, S.Kensington with siblings and 3 servants.

1901 Census (age 29) Living at 64 Longridge Road, St Cuthbert's Parish, Brompton, S.Kensington with widowed mother and 2 sisters and 3 servants. Occupation; Living on own means.

1911 Census (age 39) ; not pulled but is living St George's, London. Wendy looked and was ; listed as author and novelist with private means - 31 Buckingham Gate SW with her faithful servant Florence Mabel Pullen.

Wendy found on timesonline (each year 1939 to 45) ; "BATEMAN In ever loving and affection memory of May Geraldine Bateman a very dear Mistress and friend. June 30 1938 Florrie." ... and hence her death date, then I found on full death index for location.

1934; Granted probate over sister Alice's will.

Who's Who In Literature; BATEMAN, May Geraldine Francis. Au of Sonnets and Songs (Mathews); The Altar of Life (Duckworth; Lippincott); 2nd ed and Continental ed; The Glowworm (Heinemann); Farquharson of Glune (Chapman & Hall); Fear, The Pursuer (serial); C.Fort Rev. Windsor Mag., Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar, McClure's Mag., Cath.World (USA), Voluntad (Spain), Revue des Jeunes (France) etc. 1 Beaufort House, Beaufort Street, London SW3, Clubs; Ladies Park, Knightsbridge SW1.

The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction (Oxford Companions) ; May Geraldine Frances Bateman. Educated Anglo-French College, South Kensington.
Daily Express's correspondent during the Boer War. Edited magazines: edited the Imperial Colonist with Lady Knightley of Fawsley, contributed to Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping
Wrote novels: The Altar of Life (1898), The Glowworm (1901), Farquharson of Glune (1908). Was the object of Oswald Crawfurd's attentions
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/019860534X/ref=sib_books_pg?p=S01I&keywords=geraldine+may+bateman&ie=UTF8&qid=1311441348#reader_019860534X

This <http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/ba4.htm> says she wrote;
May Geraldine Frances BATEMAN {UK} (F: c1872 - ?)
Sonnets And Songs [p|1895]
The Children's Hour (ed) [s|1897]
The Altar Of Life [f|1898/?]
The Glow-Worm [f|1901]
The Gunner's Little Sister [f|1901]
Farquharson Of Glune [1908]
Speed Up [n|1920]


Bateman research; She was apparantely a published novelist and appears in the British Library catalogue. A " ...a well known journalist" who had annoyed her family by wanting to join the amateur society war workers at the Cape. This was just after the death of the Queen (22 Jan 1901) so it looks as if she is the Daily Express journalist in May 1901. She was certainly a very prolific authoress author, who wrote some of her many books under a pseudonym.

From Peter G Bateman biog; Auntie May, novelist - books never reprinted. Dr B stopped her going to the Cape to nurse the wounded in Boer War. Became PRO for a new bank which crashed. Engaged to fortune hunting Italian Count - called off after report from Rome police. Became an RC.

From Wendy; I have now got a book called Yeoman Service by the Lady Maud Rolleston - basically memoirs of officer's wife during Boer War and May Bateman gets quite a few mentions whilst in Kimberely: ie page 162: on April 30 Lady Gifford brought a Miss Bateman and Captain Strange to tea. Miss Bateman was a nice and pretty little lady who had come out from England all alone as the correspondent to the new paper. the Daily Express. It is an extraodinary phase of the times to see a young woman, pretty and unmarried and a lady, come out absolutely alone to see as much as possible of a country during a war in order to record her experiences and observations. She goes about wherever she can, and she is very cheerful and pleasant and was most popular with us all. p195 On June 5 Miss Bateman arrived andy my home was quite full. We had a very cheery dinner...
p197 (Lady R has news that her wounded husband Lance is in Lindley).. At last we began to pack and very soon got the things sorted out. Miss Bateman and Nan doing most of the packing.

Possible 'sightings' from Wendy ; I have come across the name 'May Bateman' from the late 1890s to the 1930s I can't tell if it is the same May Bateman each time or if there were a few of them flitting around London Society. Anyway a May Bateman had published Sonnet and Songs 1895?, The Children's Hour edited by M Bateman 1896 and sold in aid of the Invalid Children's Soc. A Miss M Bateman also attended the New Vagabond Club annual dinner at the Holborn Restaurant, London On June 16 1898. I have also come across a Bovril advertisement from 1901 quoting a Miss May Bateman correspondent for the Daily Express in Kimberley on 8 May 1901!!! I think this must just be coincident as I suppose there must be quite a few May Batemans however it would be great if it was ours. Also the name Miss May Bateman keeps coming up in the list of mourners at society funerals at the Brompton Oratory during the 1930s and also a guest at a 'do' at Westminster Cathedral celebrating the Pope's coronation. Now these all stop in the 1930s which would tie in with our May's death. There is also an article by a May Bateman in the Catholic World 1927 around St Teresa and the Carmelites and of course we do know that sibling Gabrielle ended up a Carmelite nun.