MILLICENT identical twins Ian and Max Bateman have recently celebrated their 90th birthdays with a lunch at Beachport.
They were joined by their spouses, children and grandchildren.
The pair were born at the former Thyne Memorial Hospital in Millicent on September 13, 1929.
Their parents were Val Bateman and Hilda (nee Ey) who herself was a twin.
After many decades of working the family farms at Hatherleigh and Furner, the properties of Max and Ian are now run by their sons.
Max Bateman has told of the strange circumstances around the time of their birth.
“Dad was off buying sheep at Burra at the time,” he said.
“He did not know he had twins until he got back to Millicent.”
The twins had three older siblings: Joy, Murray and Jack.
They all lived well into their 90s and are now deceased.
Their Bateman forebears have all worked the land for over 140 years and been active in community service.
Grandfather Simeon Bateman migrated from England in the 1870s and was on the first building committee which constructed St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Millicent at the end of that decade.
Their father Val Bateman was a Hatherleigh farmer who fought for Australia at Gallipoli over 104 years ago.
He returned to his property with a Turkish sniper’s bullet lodged just one centimetre from his heart.
Private Bateman was an Anzac and a member of the famed South Australian 10th battalion which went ashore on the first morning of battle on April 25, 1915.
