Michael Barton was born in the spring of 1863 in the Kent village of Hadlow. The youngest of three children, his parents were farm labourer William Barton and his wife Annie. Michael became a farm labourer when he left school and, when William died in 1890, he remained at home to support his mother.

Annie passed away in 1905, and this proved a turning point for Michael. By the time of the next census in 1911, he was recorded in the Tonbridge Union Workhouse, one of its 600 inmates.

Michael’s trail is harder to pick up at this point. Despite his age, it seems that he sought a way out of his situation when war broke out and had certainly enlisted in the army by the last year of the conflict. Initially joining the Royal Defence Corps, Private Barton was soon transferred to the Labour Corps, and was assigned to 572nd Agricultural Coy.

The next document relating to Michael is that of his passing. He died on 17th December 1918 at the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, Kent, although the cause of his death is not readily available. He was 55 years of age.

Michael Barton was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Aylesford, not far from the hospital in which he had passed.

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The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects records that Michael’s belongings passed to a Miss Kate Burley when he died. Not one of his immediate relatives, it is likely that she was a friend or other relation.

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