Robert Barton

Robert Childers Barton (4 March 1881 – 10 August 1975) was an Irish nationalist, politician and farmer who participated in the negotiations leading up to the signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. His father was Charles William Barton and his mother was Agnes Childers. His wife was Rachel Warren of Boston, daughter of Fiske Warren. His double first cousin and close friend was Robert Erskine Childers.

He was born in County Wicklow into a wealthy Irish Protestant land-owning family; namely of Glendalough House. Educated in England at Rugby and Oxford, he became an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the outbreak of the First World War. He was stationed in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising and came into contact with many of its imprisoned leaders in the aftermath while on duty at Richmond Barracks. He resigned his commission in protest at the heavy-handed British government suppression of the revolt. He then joined the Republican movement

Charles William Barton (father) was born on 13 July 1836. He married Agnes Alexandra Frances Childers, daughter of Rev. Canon Charles Childers, on 26 October 1876. He died on 3 October 1890 at age 54. Robert's two younger brothers, Erskine and Thomas, died in the British Army during the First World War.

At the 1918 general election to the British House of Commons Barton was elected as the Sinn Féin member for West Wicklow. In common with all Sinn Féin members, he boycotted the Westminster parliament and instead sat in Dáil Éireann (the "First Dáil"). Arrested in February 1919 for sedition, he escaped from Mountjoy Prison on St. Patrick's Day (leaving a note to the governor explaining that, owing to the discomfort of his cell, the occupant felt compelled to leave, and requesting the governor to keep his luggage until he sent for it). He was recaptured in January 1920 and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, but was released under the general amnesty of July 1921.

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