John Frederick La Trobe Bateman FRSE FRS MICE FRGS FGS FSA (30 May 1810 – 10 June 1889) was an English civil engineer whose work formed the basis of the modern United Kingdom water supply industry.

[2] Bateman also worked on water supply systems for Glasgow, Belfast, Bolton, Chester, Dublin, Newcastle upon Tyne, Oldham, Perth, Stockport and Wolverhampton, amongst many others.

He was the eldest son of John Bateman, "an unsuccessful inventor", and his wife Mary Agnes, daughter of Benjamin La Trobe, a member of the Moravian Church at Fairfield, near Ashton under Lyne.

In all his undertakings he advocated soft water in preference to hard, and favoured gravitation schemes where they were practicable to avoid the necessity of pumping.

He devoted much attention to methods of measuring rainfall, accumulated a quantity of statistics on the subject, and wrote several papers describing his observations.

The greatest waterworks project undertaken by Bateman was that connected with supplying water to Manchester and Salford from a chain of reservoirs in Longdendale.

The works extend over 34 miles, and were described by James Morris Gale as worthy to "bear comparison with the most extensive aqueducts in the world, not excluding those of ancient Rome".

A royal commission in 1868 reported in favour of the project, a gravitation scheme to convey 230 million gallons of water a day to the city.

In winter 1870 he visited Buenos Aires, at the request of the Argentine government, for the purpose of laying out harbour works for that city.