De Witt Batty was educated at Street Paul"s School, London and Balliol College, Oxford He was ordained in 1903 and his first position was as a curate at Hornsey where he was asked a year later by the outgoing rector, Street Clair Donaldson, to accompany him as his chaplain when Donaldson was appointed Archbishop of Brisbane.
In 1915 he was appointed a residential canon at Street John"s Cathedral, Brisbane and in 1925 the cathedral"s dean He was ordained to the episcopate in 1930. He once called his see as "the most enviable diocese in Australia".
In his obituary in The Times, he was described as being "one of the most outstanding Englishmen ever to dedicate his life to public service in Australia".
