William Barton (British politician)

[10] However, in 1913 Barton had a falling out with his local party in Oldham, although he continued to describe himself as a Liberal and notified the press that he did not intend to stand down as a Member of Parliament.

[12] In view of the recent arrest of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst there was a high level of security for the meeting, which was one of three events in Lancashire at which Asquith was speaking.

The issue which incensed Barton was the refusal of Oldham Liberals, without letting him know in advance, to admit any women to the prime minister's meeting except certain ladies in the platform parties of Lord Sheffield and Alfred Emmott.

At the 1914 meeting Millicent Fawcett moved a resolution condemning Asquith for refusing to meet a delegation of any of the large number of male supporters of women's suffrage who had come to London for the event and this was seconded by Barton who nevertheless told the rally that he thought of himself as a supporter of the prime minister and refused to regard Asquith as 'a hopeless case' on the issue,[16] although he clearly was.

[19] Clearly Barton's little local difficulty with his constituency Liberal Association had not been resolved given that they were prepared to put up a Wee Free candidate against him.

Barton was not very forgiving as he told a colleague that his Asquithian opponent Walter Rea, a former Junior Lord of the Treasury in the Asquith administration, 'counted for nothing' and that he was all for teaching the local Liberal Association its place.

[20] By 1921 however the troubles of a divided Liberal Party were impinging more pressingly on Barton's political consciousness and he was now less firmly in the Lloyd George camp.

Barton was a Justice of the Peace for the County of Lancaster, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sometime vice-president of the British Cotton Growers Association.