Robert James Bateman

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Reverend Robert James Bateman (October 14, 1860 – April 15, 1912) was born in Bristol, England, and was ordained when he was twenty-one. During his life Bateman served as a pastor in England, Wales, Ireland, and the United States. In the United States he worked as a stone mason for his father before later serving as the superintendent of the Florence Crittendon Mission in Baltimore, Maryland. In the late 1890s Bateman moved to Knoxville, Tennessee where he founded the non-denominational Peoples Tabernacle. Bateman later moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he created the Central City Mission.

After a trip to Bristol, England in 1912 he booked second-class passage on board the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton on April 10 with his sister-in-law Ada E. Balls. On Sunday, April 14 he conducted a church service in second class, just hours before the Titanic hit an iceberg. As the ship was sinking Bateman helped Ada Balls into lifeboat 10. He told Ada Balls "If I don't meet you again in this world, I will in the next" and then tossed his necktie to her.^[1]

His body was later recovered by the Mackay-Bennett, identified by his gold watch and chain, a Masonic charm pin, fountain pen, pipe lighter, and gold cuff links. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville.