Sir Harry Batterbee (19 September 1880 – 25 August 1976) was a prominent British civil servant and diplomat and the first British High Commissioner to New Zealand. Early life Batterbee was born in 1880 in Faversham, Kent in his parents' house at 62 Newton Road. His father, Napoleon Batterbee, born in Lambeth, London, was the son of a compositor, and had come to Faversham in 1859 to teach at the District National Schools, which reportedly had a Europe-wide reputation for its excellent premises and progressive methods. Harry's mother, Sarah Elizabeth (née Fagg), was from a family of local grocers. In 1890, Harry started his education at Faversham Grammar School (now Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham) and from there won a scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford. His stature, standing 6 ft 4 in, lent itself to an excellent sporting reputation. Career Batterbee was a career civil servant. He entered the Civil Service after graduating eventually specialising in handling Government relations with the Dominions of the British Empire. His diplomatic career began in 1905 in the Colonial Office in London. He was the private secretary to Walter Long MP, Secretary of State for the Colonies, during the First World War and during the 1920s he was political secretary for two major Imperial tours. The first tour was the 1923-24 'Empire Cruise' of a battle squadron of Royal Navy vessels led by ; the second was the 1927 Duke of York's tour of Australia and New Zealand. He was appointed KCVO (Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order) after this tour. At this time he was placed in a new Whitehall department as one of the original members of the Dominions Office. In 1930 he became the Assistant Permanent Undersecretary of State for Dominion Affairs to his brother-in-law and fellow alumnus of Hertford College, Oxford, Sir Edward Harding with whom he served until 1939 (Batterbee was married to Harding's sister). He and Harding wielded considerable influence from this office. In both 1930 and 1937 Batterbee acted as deputy secretary at the Imperial Conferences held in London; the latter of which was the last of its kind. In addition he carried out sensitive and largely unreported missions, such as to Newfoundland in 1933, after its government had collapsed under the weight of a severe financial crisis leading the British authorities to resume control of its affairs. During this period he negotiated with Éamon de