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The Revd. James Yorke Batley (1880-1971) was a Chevalier of the Order of the Lion and the Black Cross, receiving the accolade from Grand Prieur Mgr. George Tull in a ceremony at Pevensey Castle, Sussex in 1961.

Born in Tonbridge and educated at Tame Grammar School, he won a place at Trinity College, Cambridge.  Here, he proceeded to the degree of Master of Arts of the University of Cambridge and was appointed Lecturer in the Faculty of English there.  Subsequently, he felt the call to ordination in the Church of England, and served as assistant curate of St Paul’s Church, Cambridge, between 1911 and 1913.  After this, he became an assistant master at St John’s School, Leatherhead.  

In 1916, Cambridge University Press published his “The Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament,” a thorough exposition of the subject that was reprinted by the University of Michigan Library in 2009.  He would follow this with “On a Reformer’s Latin Bible: being an essay on the Adversaria in the Vulgate of Thomas Bilney” (1940).

Batley became a member of the Society of Free Catholics under the Revd. Joseph Morgan Lloyd-Thomas.

In 1929, Batley’s superior, Herford, became concerned at the lack of news and confused reports from his Indian mission, and therefore despatched Batley to South India to investigate.  Batley arrived there in the autumn, and remained there for nearly two years.

Batley established the Evangelical Catholic Mission in East Sussex, based at his home in Guestling, and this mission was announced for the first time in the winter of 1953.

https://san-luigi.org/2012/10/08/members-of-the-san-luigi-orders-the-revd-james-yorke-batley/