Mrs. Mabel Bateman of Richmond Hill, Ontario, was the 1986 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 1986, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.

On July 25, 1944, her son, Private Russell Ernest Bateman, was killed while on duty with the Toronto Scottish Regiment.