Earl Compton
What position did Sir Joseph Walton, 1st Baronet take from Oct 1900 to Nov 1910?
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 . Family and education . Walton was born at Bollihope , County Durham , the second son of John Walton from Frosterley , a colliery owner . He did not attend school and received his education privately . In 1880 he married Faith Gill the daughter of a Middlesbrough solicitor . They had a son , Joe , who was a barrister and died , unmarried , of erysipelas in 1913 and two daughters . Their home was at Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Cleveland . In religion Walton was an active Wesleyan Methodist all his life . Career . Walton began his commercial career in Middlesbrough in 1870 in the coal industry and allied trades . He recognised the great expansion in the coal industry which was continuing to take place at that time and the key place of Middlesbrough in its development . He eventually built up a large business of coal and coke related merchants and colliery ownership . Politics . Doncaster . Waltons success in business enabled him to devote his time to political activity . He first contested the Doncaster Division in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the 1895 general election . Doncaster was a Liberal seat but the national mood was swinging to the Conservatives and Walton could not hold the constituency for the Liberals against the trend . Barnsley , by-election . Walton soon got another opportunity to enter the House of Commons when a vacancy occurred at another West Riding seat , Barnsley in 1897 . The sitting Liberal MP , William Compton who held the courtesy title of Earl Compton , succeeded to the marquessate on the death in September 1897 of his father . Walton was adopted as the Liberal candidate for the resulting by-election . 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 . 1900-1922 . Walton held his seat at the 1900 general election in a straight fight against the Unionists by a majority of 3,193 . In 1906 he was returned unopposed . He held again in January 1910 by a majority of 7,372 over the Unionists and was again unopposed at the December 1910 general election . It was clear that by this time Walton had the respect of the working-class community and in 1914 even the Barnsley Trades Council was able to announce that Walton was ‘not a bad representative’ . At the 1918 general election , Walton stood again , this time as a Coalition Liberal ( having presumably received the Coalition coupon ) and was again without opposition . He did not stand for re-election at the 1922 general election when the seat was won for the first time by the Labour Party . Political stance . Walton was described as being in the Radical tradition of late 19th century Liberalism . He was in favour of Irish Home Rule and of other forms of devolution , or ‘Home Rule All Round’ . Whilst an MP he voted in favour of the 1908 Womens Enfranchisement Bill . He also took a deep interest in foreign affairs and in the development of the British Empire . 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 . As a result of his interest in the Far East , Walton gained the soubriquet The Member for China in Parliament . He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a founder member of the Royal Central Asian Society . Honours and appointments . Walton was created a baronet , of Rushpool , in the County of York , in 1910 . He was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesbrough and the North Riding of Yorkshire and a Deputy Lieutenant of the North Riding . Publication . China and the Present Crisis ( with notes on a visit to Japan and Korea ) ; Sampson , Low & Co. , London , 1900 Death . Walton died at Bournemouth on 8 February 1923 aged 73 years .