Sir Joseph Walton, 1st Baronet

Sir Joseph Walton, 1st Baronet, DL, JP (19 March 1849 – 8 February 1923) was an English coalowner and Liberal Party politician.

He eventually built up a large business of coal and coke related merchants and colliery ownership.

Walton soon got another opportunity to enter the House of Commons when a vacancy occurred at another West Riding seat, Barnsley in 1897.

[5] Despite the unanticipated intervention of an Independent Labour Party candidate, Pete Curran, the chief organizer of the Gasworkers and General Labourers’ Union, who was expected to receive the votes of the mineworking districts of Hemsworth and Kinsley as well as those of other working men, Walton retained the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 3,290 over the Unionist Mr J Blyth, with Curran in last place.

He travelled extensively in India, Burma, Africa, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, various British Protectorates, as well as visiting China, Japan, Persia, Mesopotamia, Russia and the Balkans.

[2] China and the Present Crisis (with notes on a visit to Japan and Korea); Sampson, Low & Co., London, 1900 Walton died at Bournemouth on 8 February 1923[1] aged 73 years.