Major Barnes Dies Suddenly at Ulverston

The news of the death at Ulverston with tragic suddenness on Thursday night of Major Nicolas Edmund Barnes, T.D., of Hill Top, came as a shock to his wide circle of friends in the town and district, for few men were more widely known or universally respected.

He had attended that evening a function at the Ulverston Grammar School in connection with the North Lonsdale Cadets, and when Lady Darlington had presented the certificates and prizes, Major Barnes moved the vote of thanks to her ladyship.

Shortly after returning home he was relating the incidents of the evening to his wife when he suddenly collapsed and died. A doctor was summoned, who pronounced life extinct, and has issued a probable cause certificate that death was due to thrombosis. He is survived by his wife.

MANY-SIDED ACTIVITIES

The late Major Barnes was 75 years of age, and a prominent figure in the legal profession and in many other walks of life.

A courteous gentleman, his services were gladly given to the community in which he lived, notably with the British Legion and the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmens’ Families’ Association and many other organisations.

He had a long association with the 4th King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment with whom he served in the last war.

The late Major Barnes was prominent in the Masonic Order, had a long and intimate association with Ulverston and its affairs, and his passing is a great loss to the town.

The funeral service will take place at Holy Trinity Church, Ulverston, at 11 a.m. on Monday.

TRIBUTES AT BARROW

Speaking at the close of Friday’s hearings at the Barrow court, the Mayor (Coun. G.D. Hastwell, presiding) paid a tribute to Major Barnes, whom he described as the oldest practicing solicitor in the district. Many of them remembered him as a very fair professional gentleman.

For a short time between the death of Mr. Major and the present Clerk, he had officiated as the Clerk to the Magistrates, and the speaker understood, from those in contact with him, that he carried out his duties very efficiently, sympathetically and fairly. He felt, said the Mayor, that the profession in the district had lost a valued servant.

Associating himself and the profession with this tribute, Mr. Stanley J. Fisher, of Dalton, said that Major Barnes was a man of great charm and courtesy and absolute integrity, with a high sense of professional dignity. They regarded him as the embodiment of the virtues that went to make up the true gentleman.

 

Barrow News, 29 July 1944

CAREER

Born at St. Michel, Savoie, France on 13 October 1868, Nicolas Edmund Barnes was the eldest son of the late Mr. Edmund Barnes, Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (France), and Chevalier of the Order of Charles III, of Spain, who came to Ulverston in 1875 to become a partner in the firm of Salmon, Barnes and Co., at Canal Head Foundry.

His mother, Margaret Elizabeth Nicolas, came of an old French Huguenot family, and was a niece of the eminent historian and genealogist, the late Sir Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G., K.H. and of the late Rear-Admiral John Toup Nicolas, C.B., K.H.

Nicolas Edmund Barnes was educated at the private school of the Rev. Holland Eckersley, and deciding upon the legal profession served his articles with the firm of Salmon, Daniell and Major, sen., Clerk to the Justices solicitor in November 1891. For some years he practised on his own account and also acted as deputy to the late Mr. S.E. Major, Clerk to the Justices at Ulverston and Barrow. During that period he was a member of the Ulverston Urban District Council and of the Higher Education Committee, and of the Ulverston School Board, and subsequently of the Local Elementary Education Committee of the Lancashire County Council. He was a member of the School Board when the Victoria Schools in Hart-street, Ulverston, were brought into being.

SERVED IN THE TRENCHES

He was an officer in the 1st V.B. The King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, and on the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908 continued his service in the 4th Battalion of the Regiment. He commanded the Headquarters Detachment at Ulverston for some years. At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he had the satisfaction of mobilising his detachment at full strength – about 220 officers, N.C.O.s and men.

He proceeded to France with the Battalion and took part in the engagement at Festubert on 15 June 1915. He served with the battalion in the trenches until the following year, when he was invalided home.

After recovery he served in England and then in Ireland until the end of the war. He then retired with the rank of major and received the Territorial Officers’ decoration.

He resumed practice as a solicitor in Ulverston, and from 1931-1934 was president of the North Lonsdale Law Association.

On the death of the Clerk to the Justices of the County Borough of Barrow in September, 1934, he was invited by the Bench to act as clerk during the vacancy of the clerkship, and he so acted until the end of January, 1935, when he received a letter of appreciation from the Justices for his services.

He held high office in Freemasonry, being an officer of the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of Mark Grand Lodge of England, and having been an Assistant Grand Master for West Lancashire.

He was deeply interested in the welfare of ex-Service men, and was one of the founders of the Ulverston and District branch of the British Legion, and served as president of the branch for many years.

He married in 1914 his cousin, Mary Eveline Lloyd, the only daughter of Mr. Ernest Henry Lloyd, of Bryntirion, Neath.

Barrow News, 5 August 1944