Bateson, Caroline Beatrice, 1870-1941 (née Durham, wife of William Bateson)
Biography
(Caroline) Beatrice Durham was the daughter of a senior surgeon at Guy's Hospital, Arthur Edward Durham (1834–1895). She met William Bareson in 1889 Bateson met. Their subsequent engagement was broken off and all correspondence intercepted due to disapproval of Bateson by Beatrice's mother. Seven years later, Beatrice's parents having died, they renewed their acquaintance and in 1896 they married. Of their three sons John was killed in the First World War in 1918, Martin committed suicide in 1922, but Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) had a distinguished career in social anthropology and psychology. Beatrice was devoted to her husband and until 1903 she performed most of the menial tasks associated with her husband's experiments. After his death she gathered together his correspondence and published extracts in her 160-page memoir alongside a collection of his public lectures in 'William Bateson, F.R.S., Naturalist: his Essays and Addresses' (1928).