He was born 1789, the son of Dr. Batty of Hastings and started to study medicine at Caius College, Cambridge, being awarded an M.B. in 1813. He left his studies to join the Grenadier Guards (then the 1st Foot Guards), with whom he served in the campaign of the Western Pyrenees and at Waterloo, where he was wounded and wrote an account of the Battle of Waterloo in a series of letters. He later published an illustrated account of his experiences and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822.