Robert Childers Barton
(1881–1975)

Biographical

Member of the Dáil Eireann for Kildare and Wicklow 1922 (declined)
Secretary for Economic Affairs 1921–22
Chairman of the Wicklow county council 1920
Director of Agriculture 1919–21
MP for Wicklow for the Sinn Féin 1918–22

Of Glendalough House, Wicklow, Barton joined the Irish National Volunteers in 1913, reaching the rank of commandant. He served in World War I in 1915 with the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps and joined the Irish battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1916. After being despatched to Dublin during the Easter Rising, he resigned his commission and then joined Sinn Féin and the IRA. In 1919 Barton was arrested for seditious speeches but managed to flee imprisonment, only to be arrested again in 1920 and sentenced to three years in jail; he was released in 1921. In 1921 he was a member of the Irish Peace Delegation sent to London for the Irish government to end the Anglo-Irish War. He continued to serve in politics and was appointed to a number of senior positions in state-run companies.

Place of birth: Glendalough House, Annamoe, Wicklow
Place of death: Glendalough House, Annamoe, Wicklow

Son of Charles Barton and Agnes Childers, he married Rachel Warren in 1950.