Robert Hewitt Barker was a British textile mill owner. He was the independent Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Sowerby

Sowerby (UK Parliament constituency)

Sowerby was a county constituency centred on the village of Sowerby in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...

, 1918–1922, with the support of the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers

National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers

The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers was a British veterans' organisation.The group was founded in early 1917 at a conference in Blackburn, drawing together various local groups representing working men who had served in World War I but had since been discharged. It...

.

He became joint owner of the firm of Luke Barker and Sons, cotton spinners in Todmorden

Todmorden

Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....

. He was in the Lancashire Fusiliers

Lancashire Fusiliers

The Lancashire Fusiliers was a British infantry regiment that was amalgamated with other Fusilier regiments in 1968 to form the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.- Formation and early history:...

 in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, rising to the rank of Major. He stood for Parliament in 1918, but did not stand again in 1922.

External links

• http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/robert_barker/sowerby