Batt held the post of Professor of Commercial Law for twenty-three years until 1942. At that date he took up an honorary chair in common law, which he held until 1945. This shift in role was necessitated by Batt’s appointment to the County Court bench as a County Court judge. From that time, he was His Honour Judge Batt. Here, we consider his life and his time at Liverpool.
Batt (1890-1961)[i] was born on the 9th June 1890. His father was HE Batt of Heavitree, Exeter. He married twice. His first wife was Amy Isabel (d.1941). They married in 1921. Sadly, Amy died in 1941. Raleigh Batt married again in 1959. His second wife was Teresa Corrigan of Castlewellan, Northern Ireland. She died on the 25th March 1961.
Education
Batt was educated at Mount Radford School, Exeter. He then went on to the Law Society’s School of Law in London as he was intending to become a solicitor. Batt was articled to the late Richard Tapley, Solicitor, of Exeter, 1906. Batt was successful as a Law Society finalist, obtaining a number of prizes. These were the Daniel Reardon, Clements Inn and Clabon Prizes which he obtained in June 1911. Batt was awarded an LL.M. from the University of Wales.
Batt’s career took a change in direction when he was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn on the 26th January 1917. Following his call to the Bar with the degree of barrister at law, Batt was elected to the Northern Circuit in 1920. He was first in chambers at 25 Lord Street from 1920 to 1927. He then moved to 15 Union Court from 1928 to 1933. He then moved to 3 Cook Street from 1934 to 1942.[ii]
Academic Career
Batt’s academic career started at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He was appointed as an assistant Lecturer in Law, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He held the post between 1911 and 1913. Batt then moved to the post of lecturer in law at the University of Sheffield in 1913. Then, in 1919, he was appointed Professor of Commercial Law in the University of Liverpool. He held this post between 1919 and 1942.
He was also Dean of the Faculty of Law between 1925 and 1942. Whilst at Liverpool, Batt taught criminal law and tort.[iii] Batt was appointed as an honorary Professor of Common Law, a post he held from 1942 to 1945. Batt was also an early Secretary of the Association of University Teachers. He was also the President of the Society of Public Teachers of Law (now the Society of Legal Scholars) between 1939 and 1946. In 1946 he gave what “must have a good claim to being the longest Presidential address on record.”[iv] A flavour of Batt’s views on legal education can be drawn from his speech. As Cownie and Cocks have noted Batt:
“…had a high regard for many practitioners working with the common law. He was uncontroversial in requiring that undergraduates should ‘have a firm grasp of the principles of the Common law’ He had a favourable view of legal history but thought it should be ‘subsidiary to the law.’
‘I am inclined to think that many law teachers are too preoccupied…with legal history when they are expounding the modern law.’ He had little time for Roman law and even less for jurisprudence. He could not tolerate ‘the smart, rather cheeky young man whose wit and readiness in speech and writing mask his essential incompetence and incapacity to concentrate or apply himself to study.’
‘What every law student should know is that his future clients are not buying his brains so much as his technical knowledge and scrupulous unremitting and assiduous care in the conduct of their affairs.’ Nor was there much (if any) merit in the more speculative of intellectual enquiry. What mattered was preparation for legal practice and an associated respect for professional demands. It would be hard for the listener to conclude that is was worth attempting something novel in legal education.”[v]
Some impression of Batt and his interactions with students can be gleaned from some surviving correspondence with Rose Heilbron, later Mrs Justice Heilbron. Rose Heilbron’s attempts to obtain pupillage were the subject of correspondence with Batt. As Hilary Heilbron KC has noted in her biography of her mother[vi], some flavour of the prevailing attitudes of the time towards female barristers can be seen from the correspondence. In a letter date 2nd June 1939 Batt, then Dean of the Faculty of Law, wrote:
“My Dear Miss Heilbron
Further consideration on the matter of your reading in Chambers with me has led to considerable difficulties. Mr Fraser Harrison feels unable to make any offer to take you for the latter six months or off [at] any time and I have a definite feeling that the other men in these chambers and the clerk would not welcome a women pupil.
As you saw, our accommodation is somewhat cramped and it is essential that the best relations should exist between all of us in Chambers. It is not of course any personal feeling with regard to you but it is simply that Barrister have not got used to women practicing at the Bar and sharing Chambers with them and feel some constraint and diffidence when a woman is in Chambers.
It is not that any of them has definitely objected to your becoming a pupil but rather that I have a feeling that they would not be happy about it. But there is in my opinion a graver matter in your own interests and it is this – it has been made clear to me that there would be no room for you to remain after your year of pupillage was over and you would therefore have to seek Chambers elsewhere. That you would find very difficult because naturally it is easier to be accommodated in those Chambers in which you have served pupillage.
If you would care to come and see me again, I can explain matters perhaps more fully.
Yours very sincerely
Professor Francis Raleigh Batt.”
As Hilary Heilbron KC has noted, “It must have been a great disappointment to Rose, particularly since Professor Batt himself held an enlightened view of women at the Bar.”[vii] Eventually, Heilbron did find pupillage with Richard Trotter at 43 Castle Street, Liverpool. This was Hartley Shawcross’ Chambers. Shawcross had been her former tutor at the University of Liverpool.
Batt was known for three main publications. The first was his book on the Law of Master and Servant which ran to three editions under his hand between 1928 and 1950.[viii] His second main piece of work was the Law of Negotiable Instruments which was published in 1931.[ix] Batt also edited Chalmer’s Bills of Exchange in 1947.[x]
Judge
After his successful career in academia, Batt sought elevation to the County Court bench. He was successful. He held a number of judicial appointments. First, he was appointed to sit on a Tribunal to examine Aliens in Lancashire and Westmorland in 1939. He also sat as an Assistant Recorder of Liverpool from 1940 to 1942.
Batt was made a County Court judge in 1942. He was made Deputy Chairman of Lancashire Quarter Sessions in 1939, a post he held until 1946. He first sat on Circuit No 10 (Lancashire and Cheshire) until 1958. As a County Court judge, he transferred to Circuit No 8 (Manchester and Leigh) in 1958.
He was also a Justice of the Peace in both Cheshire and Lancashire.
Batt was a member of the University Club (Liverpool). Batt last lived at 34 Hawthorn Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. He died in 1961 at the age of 71.
Author: Dr John Tribe (August 2023)
References
[i] See further: Batt, His Honour Judge Francis Raleigh, (9 June 1890–25 March 1961), JP Cheshire and Lancs; County Court Judge, Circuit No 8 (Manchester and Leigh), since 1958; a Deputy Chairman of Lancashire Quarter Sessions. Who's Who & Who Was Who. 2007. See also: University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives D255/10/1/11 - Francis Batt (Chair of Commercial Law, Chair of Common Law) - n.d. [c.1975-1980].
[ii] Lynch, D. Northern Circuit Directory 1876-2004. The Bluecoat Press, Liverpool, 2005, p.187.
[iii] See further: University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives D381 - Bannerman, Kenneth - Session 1943 – 1944. Lecture notes on Criminal Law and Torts delivered by Professor Judge F Raleigh Batt and Mr J Crossley Vaines taken by Kenneth Bannerman. The notes are undated apart from the first page of the Criminal Law Lecture notes (1 Oct. 1943). A few of the notes are in shorthand…
[iv] Cownie, F & Cocks, R. A Great and Noble Occupation: The History of the Society of Legal Scholars. Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2009, p.68.
[v] Ibid, pp.68-69, quoting (1947-1951) 1 (NS) JSPTL 4,7,8,11
[vi] Heilbron, H. Rose Heilbron: Legal Pioneer of the 20th Century. Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2012, p.20.
[vii] Ibid, p.20.
[viii] Raleigh Batt, F. The law of master and servant. Pitman, London, 1950.
[ix] Raleigh Batt, F. The Law of Negotiable Instruments. Longmans & Co, London, 1931.
[x] Raleigh Batt, F. Chalmers' Digest of the Law of Bills of Exchange ... Eleventh edition. Mackenzie Dalzell Edwin Stewart Chalmers, Sir, 1847-1927. Stevens & Sons; Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1947.
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