Biography:
John de Havilland Chisholm-Batten was born 14 October 1889, one of three sons of Lieutenant Colonel James Forbes Chisholm-Batten (Commer 1860-1866) and his wife Anne. The family had homes in Thornfalcon, Somerset and in Aigas Forest, Inverness-shire.
John came to Winchester College as a Scholar from Wayneflete School in September 1903. He was a College Prefect in his last year, 1908, and a member of the school's Debating Society.
He left school in the summer of 1908 and he passed into Woolwich later the same year, and then obtained a commission in the RFA in December 1909. He had recently returned from India when war broke out, and went to France with the original Expeditionary Force, being wounded at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. He was promoted to Captain that year. He subsequently served in Gallipoli and in 1916 returned to France, where he was again wounded on the Ancre.
John was killed in action near Wytschaete, in the Ypres Salient, on 6 August 1917 and is buried in grave III.A.15 of the Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery. His obituary in The Wykehamist (567, October 1917) stated: 'Many friends, both of Winchester days and in the Royal Regiment, will remember with admiration and a keen regret his qualities of loyal and constant affection, and an understanding of human nature so deep that superficial observers were inclined to overlook it'.
His elder brother, 2nd Lieutenant James Chisholm-Batten (not an Old Wykehamist) was killed on 30 September 1915 at Vermelles and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.