15 September 1909 in Rotorua, New Zealand, to Frederick Batten, a dentist, and his wife Ellen . She was the only daughter of the couple, who were both first-generation New Zealanders of English descent. She had two older brothers and a third who had died soon after birth. Although named for her grandmother, she soon became known as Jean. Being the youngest child as well as sickly, her mother, who had a domineering personality, doted on her. When she was four, the Batten family moved to Auckland. Commencing her education at a private school, Batten was switched to a state school in 1917. As her father had enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) to fight in the First World War, the family was on a reduced income. Batten's mother encouraged her in activities considered to be masculine, taking her to Kohimarama to observe the flying boats of the flight school there. According to Batten's unpublished memoirs, these visits inspired her to pursue flying. After the war, Fred Batten was discharged from the NZEF and resumed his career as a dentist, moving his family from Devonport, where they had been renting, to Epsom. Her parents' relationship, already brittle due to Fred's extramarital relationships and Ellen's aloofness and reluctance to step back from running the household following her husband's return from the war, ended when the couple separated in 1920. This apparently affected Jean badly, who later vowed she would never get married. In later years Jean would deny her parents' breakup and maintain the marriage was a happy one. Following the separation of her parents, Batten lived with her mother in Howick; Fred Batten, who lived with his sons near his dental practice on Queen Street, covered some living expenses. In 1922, Jean was sent to Ladies' College, a girls' boarding college in Remuera at her father's expense. Although she later described her time at the school as a happy one, she had few friends and many of her fellow students found her to be aloof. She finished her education in late 1924, refusing to go back the following year for her fifth form year. Instead, she studied music and ballet with an intention of pursuing a career in one of these disciplines. She soon became an assistant teacher at the ballet school where she trained, playing the piano during classes. In May 1927, Batten read of Charles Lindbergh's