William Bateman Fagan was born in Bermondsey, London, England on 3 September 1860 and studied under William Silver Frith at the South London Technical School of Art (Lambeth School of Art) from 1881 to 1885. He subsequently worked primarily as an architectural sculptor. He participated in the Exhibition of Decorative Art at the Royal Academy in London in 1923. He also exhibited in the Summer Exhibitions at the Royal Academy between 1887 and 1944, and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Leeds City Art Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

His commissions included the decoration of the Hamburg-American shipping line offices in Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, London; a memorial tablet to the Dutch marine artists Willem Van de Velde the elder and the younger located in St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London; the architectural sculpture scheme for Imperial Chemicals House, Millbank, London; and architectural sculptures for the municipal buildings in Birmingham. War memorials by Fagan include a memorial tablet in St Mary the Virgin Church; Little Baddow, Essex in 1920; and the memorial in Westow Street, Upper Norwood, south London on 1922.

He was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (ARBS) in 1923 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (FRBS) in 1938. He was also a member of the Chelsea Arts Club.

During World War One Fagan served in the Royal Army Medical Corps at the 3rd London General Hospital with Francis Derwent Wood with whom he worked making facial masks for disfigured soldiers and sailors.

Fagan lived throughout his career in London. He died at 143 Old Church Street, Chelsea, London on 9 April 1948. His address at the time of his death was 21 Beaufort Mansions, Chelsea, London.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}