Obituary: Kenneth J. Barton 1924–2018

Abstract

Ken Barton died peacefully on 28th August 2018. He had had a distinguished career in museums and a lifelong passion for medieval and post-medieval pottery. Having been a founder member of the Society for Medieval Archaeology in 1957, he with John Hurst, and with the encouragement of Alan Warhurst, was instrumental in founding the Post-Medieval Ceramic Research Group in 1963, and was active in the process of its transformation into the Society for Post-medieval Archaeology. He served as our President from 1976 to 1978 and one of our two Vice-presidents from 1979 to 1981. Perhaps his greatest achievement whilst an officer of the society was organising our first joint conference with the Society for Historical Archaeology in Bristol in 1980. He was born in Liverpool on 7th August 1924. It was not until 1949, after leaving school at the age of 14 and taking a variety of jobs including active war service with the Irish Guards, when he realised that Ken at home (reproduced by courtesy of Marilyn Barton)