Hugh Thom Barrie PC (Ire) (6 August 1860–18 April 1922) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born businessman and unionist politician who was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for North Londonderry from

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

until his death, with a short break after the 1918 general election. "Though not a noted orator on the level of dwardCarson, his industrious nature, popular touch and work ethic, coupled with his Scottish connections, enabled Barrie to play a vital role" in Ulster unionist opposition to

Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for Devolution, self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1 ...

Business and family life

Barrie was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

to William Barrie and came to

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

in 1879. He worked in an agricultural export business and took it over in 1894. In 1892 Barrie married Katherine Quarry, daughter of W. H. Quarry of the Methodist Church in Ireland. He himself was

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

. They had three sons and one daughter, including Sir Walter Barrie (1901–1988), a chairman of the Chartered Insurance Institute and Lloyd's of London.

Politics

Barrie was a Coleraine

town commissioner Town commissioners were elected local government bodies that existed in urban areas in Ireland from the 19th century until 2002. Larger towns with commissioners were converted to urban districts by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with ...

from 1889 and

urban district council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

lor from

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

, chairing the council for several years. He was a prominent

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and Orangeman and supported

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. He was elected to Westminster in

and retained his seat in January 1910 and

December 1910 The following events occurred in December 1910: December 1, 1910 (Thursday) * Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for his eighth term as President of Mexico."Record of Current Events", ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (January 1911), pp ...

. He promoted the

Ulster Covenant Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by nearly 500,000 people on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. ...

and led the Ulster unionist delegation at the 1917–18

Irish Convention The Irish Convention was an assembly which sat in Dublin, Ireland from July 1917 until March 1918 to address the ''Irish question'' and other constitutional problems relating to an early enactment of self-government for Ireland, to debate its wid ...

.Hughes 2013 p.146; In 1918 he was High Sheriff of County Londonderry and lest this be considered an office of profit disqualifying him from the Commons he did not stand in the December 1918 election. Hugh Anderson, Barrie's

election agent An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...

, was elected in his stead, standing down in February 1919, with Barrie regaining his seat in the ensuing by-election on 4 March. Barrie was Vice-President of the Irish

Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

from 1919 to November 1921, for which he was appointed the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

in the

1920 Birthday Honours The 1920 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were p ...

, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable". He was also a member of the Senate of Northern Ireland.

References

*Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 19 April 1922 * *

Citations

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrie, Hugh 1860 births 1922 deaths Politicians from Glasgow People from Coleraine, County Londonderry Businesspeople from Northern Ireland UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Londonderry constituencies (1801–1922) Members of the Senate of Northern Ireland 1921–1925 Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Irish Unionist Party MPs Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Ulster Unionist Party members of the Senate of Northern Ireland Businesspeople in agriculture