Basil Barton

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Major Basil Kelsey Barton MC (1879 – 2 July 1958) was a British solicitor and Conservative politician from Hull. He served as a Member of Parliament for Hull Central from 1931 to 1935.

Barton went to Oundle School. He became a solicitor in November 1903 and worked in Hull. In World War I he served as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, earned the Military Cross in 1917, and rose to the rank of Captain. He is listed as a prisoner of war on the Roll of Honour at St Helens Church in Welton. After the war he returned to his law practice in Hull.

In 1931 Barton was elected MP for Hull Central. The seat had been held by Joseph Kenworthy, who had been Liberal and then Labour. In 1931 the Liberals did not contest Hull’s seats, and Barton won by 3,660 votes (10.2%).

Kenworthy became Baron Strabolgi in 1934. In the 1935 election Barton defended the seat against Walter Windsor, a former Communist who had been MP for Bethnal Green North East, but Windsor won with about an 8% swing. Barton did not stand for Parliament again.

He died on 2 July 1958, aged 79, at his home in Brough-on-Humber near Hull.