barton

Lieutenant Irvine Julius Barton enlisted at Brisbane on 2nd September 1914 aged 19 and 8 months. He was accidentally wounded in June 1917 and died of wounds on 5 April 1918. In his attestation papers he describes himself as a farmer. His next of kin was his mother Mrs A K Cochran of 187 Wharf Street, Brisbane. While serving with the 2nd Australian Light Horse, 52nd Infantry Battalion he was awarded a Military Cross for an action on 6th March 1918 for: "Exceptional gallantry and devotion to duty. When as one of a reconnoitring patrol he was lying concealed well within the enemy outpost line, by the light of a hostile fare he saw eight of the enemy approaching. He allowed them to come within a few feet of his positioned and then summoned them to surrender. Revolver fire was opened upon them and a bomb thrown, resulting in four of the enemy being badly wounded. He displayed coolness, dash and military judgement of he highest order."

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/

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/