barton

Brisbane in 1888 was only 7 years behind the world’s first commercial public electricity supply system in Godalming in England in 1881. The advent of “cool” electric light to replace the “hot” gas lights was a welcome change for the citizens in a sub-tropical city, and as had been reported previously in the Brisbane Courier on 23 June, "during summer nights, the employees of the Post Office have suffered considerably through the vitiated state of the atmosphere in this room caused by the large consumption of gas and bad ventilation." The Barton & White enterprise started off providing the whole gamut of electrical services, as well as generation and supply wiring, by “manufacturing all fittings for electric light and power, supply brackets for lamps, sockets, cut outs, portable hand lamps, reflectors, arc lamps of 2000 candlepower, electric motors, etc., and undertake electrical work in all parts of the colony”.(S.A.Prentice Edward Barton Pioneer Electrical Engineer, 1988) From this humble beginning, using small carbon filament lamps and steam boilers fuelled by wood (because the cheaper coal was found to be a smoke nuisance), the whole electricity supply industry in Queensland has grown to provide a service right throughout our state, and which is essential to our modern way of life. Brian Becconsall, Engineering Heritage Queensland 10 Aug 2013 Source: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/resourc...

Nice photo. Before I was born & not being Irish- I also don't know what the Hell they were doing, but it seems that it interested many people back then - - -

Barton was the name of Erskine Childers mother and they were part of the Barton and Guestier wine growing and shipping company. The original Barton was Thomas - is it possible that the two are related. I tried to google the name but did not do too well. It does appear that the Childers family had strong connections to Waterford.

Swordscookie Well, keep at it! ;) No T. Barton in Waterford in either 1901 or 1911 census...

Swordscookie Re Barton and Childers, see our OTHER Flickr photostream (that's swanky for you)!

It may be a red herring, but a "Bovril boat" was a boat used in London to carry sewage out to sea ([en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril_Boats]). The small boats in the foreground don't seem to match the description, but perhaps the larger ones in the background do.

The 1901 census has an 11 year old Charles G. born at what looks like Portronan, Country Donegal and who was recorded at Scaitcliffe E.G, Egham Surry as a boarder.(Apologies, but the census enumerators hand-writing is appalling)

Scaitcliffe was a day/boarding prep school for boys aged 6-13 in Egham, Surrey. After merging with Virginia Water school, the school is now co-educational and known as Bishopsgate School. The school is located in a small village in Egham called Englefield Green near Windsor Great Park.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaitcliffe

There isn't an obvious match for Charles on the 1911 census.

The additional information on the CWGC site is that he was son of the late Col. B. J. Barton, A.D.C., D.L., and Mrs. Barton, of Portsalon, Co. Donegal; husband of Letty Barton, of The Garth, Ashford, Kent.
www.cwgc.org/search-for-war-dead/casualty/572143/BARTON,%...

It may be coincidence but in a piece on a well-to-do pair of spinsters from Dublin who grew up in this period and who moved in the circles of the Anglo-Irish gentry, there is a passing mention of a Barton family of Portsalon, Co Donegal.

"Golf was a particular passion of Letitia’s and she was a member of Carrickmines Golf Club in Dublin and Portsalon in Co. Donegal. This is a picture of a golf outing at Portsalon with members of the Barton family. The Overends and Bartons were related and both Letitia and Naomi spent quite a lot of time in Donegal with their cousins throughout their lives. For Letitia in particular it provided the only real contact she had with other children (or teenagers as we would say now) as her early life was dominated by adult company."
www.airfield.ie/who_we_are_overend_family.html

(Part of the reason they may well have remained spinsters is the devasting losses suffered amongst the eligible young men of their generation).

Many of the Kent Town memorials have been very well researched, although some of the associated documents are quite large - the one for Ashford Civic memorial is 46Mbps. These confirm that Charles was commemorated on both that memorial and the Ashford St Mary's one. Although it doesn't offer much additional information about his death, it does note that his father had been aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria and gives his mothers name as Mrs Ethel Barrow Barton.
www.kentfallen.com/PDF%20REPORTS/ASHFORD%20TOWN.pdf

I can't find an obvious candidate in England and Wales for the marriage of Charles and Letty, but of course they could have married in Ireland and then had some other reason to move to Kent.

I also could not find a citation for his Military Cross award in the London Gazette - in fact the only mention I could find of him was a note in the edition dates 28th July 1916 that a Temporary Lieutenant C G Barton of the Royal Inniskillings gave up the rank of Temporary Captain on ceasing to command a Company, effective 20th May 1916.
www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29687/pages/7486

(PS - I too thought of David Niven when I saw the picture :-)

Charles Geoffrey Barton was the youngest of 8 children, (2 girls and 6 boys - all of the boys later becoming Servicemen; Lt Col B J Barton DSO [33rd]; Lt G Barton RN; Lt R Barton RGA; Maj E H Barton [10 R Innis Fus], and Capt C G Barton MC [5 R Innis Fus]).
Details are at: The Peerage.com www.thepeerage.com/p26800.htm#i267992

Charles Geoffrey Barton married Ethel Barrow Welldon on 27th March 1915; they had a daughter, Carol, b. 25 December 1915. Carol went to Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall) and later married Lt Col Richard William Shepherd, (9 August 1941), they had 2 sons and a daughter. Ethel Barton died in 1971.

Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/