Archdeacon John Batchelor, D.D., OBE (20 March 1855 – 2 April 1944) was an Anglican English missionary to the Ainu people of Japan until 1941.

He was a charismatic and iconoclastic missionary for the Anglican Church in Japan and published highly regarded work on the language and culture of the Ainu people.

He left Hong Kong on 31 May 1877, then on 16 July he boarded a freight ship to Hakodate from Yokahama.

In Hakodate he was assigned as a junior to the senior missionary Walter Dening of the CMS, settling in the city's Motomachi district.

1884 - Batchelor married Louisa Andrews, who had a young brother, Walter, who was working as a missionary in Hakodate.

1891 - Batchelor and his colleague Lucy Payne of Anglican Church founded Harutori Ainu school in Kushiro.

Batchelor harshly criticised the Japanese for their cruel treatment of the Ainu, saying "I'm past eighty, and probably that accounts for it.

They quit trying to exterminate this shattered relic of a dying Caucasian race when visitors with money to spend began coming from all over the world just to see and study them.