Researching Michael Barnes

Barnes was born in Painswick, Gloucestershire to Major Cecil Barnes and Katherine Barnes. He studied at Malvern School before completing national service as a second lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment. He then went on to university, where he read Classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and joined the Labour Party in his final year. After graduating, Barnes worked for advertising agencies for several years.

Barnes entered politics at the age of 32. Having unsuccessfully fought Wycombe in 1964, he was Member of Parliament for Brentford and Chiswick in 1966. As an MP, he argued in support for refugees from the Biafran Civil War and for Bangladesh in its fight for independence. Barnes also voted in favour of the UK joining the EEC, rebelling against a Labour three line whip.

Barnes remained an MP until 1974, when the Brentford and Chiswick seat was abolished in boundary changes. At the February 1974 general election, he stood in the new Brentford and Isleworth constituency against the Conservative MP Barney Hayhoe, whose own Heston and Isleworth constituency had also been abolished. Hayhoe won by 726 votes. Afterwards, Barnes became a founding member of the Social Democratic Party, before returning to the Labour Party two years later.

Between 1990 and 1996 Barnes served as Legal Services Ombudsman. Between 2002 and 2010, he served as the Independent Assessor of the Financial Ombudsman Service. He was appointed CBE in the 1998 New Year Honours. Barnes also worked part-time for the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Barnes died in March 2018 at the age of 85, survived by his wife Anne and two children, Hugh and Kate.

Barnes played a single first-class match for Warwickshire against Yorkshire in the 2007 County Championship. He was not called upon to bat during the match, but from behind the stumps he took 5 catches. He also played a single List A match for Warwickshire against Lancashire in the 2007 Friends Provident Trophy. In his only List-A match, he scored 1 not out and from behind the stumps he took 5 catches, a record for a debutant in both games. He was released by Warwickshire at the end of the 2007 season and subsequently retired from professional cricket. Michael now coaches for Surrey County Cricket Club and is the cricket professional for RGS Guildford.

Born in Peckham, South London, he became interested in theatre while attending Alleyn's School on a scholarship. Having also received a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, he took a first in history and, after graduating, became a lecturer in modern history at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst in Edinburgh, he took part in shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but found that "learning huge dollops of script wasn’t all that appealing".

In 1961, he became a Lecturer in History at Queen's University Belfast, but continued to have an interest in the arts. The arts festival which would later become the Queen's University Festival was founded by a student, Michael Emmerson, in 1962, and Barnes quickly became involved. When Emmerson started a Belfast branch of the National Film Theatre as the Queen's Film Theatre in 1968, Barnes was the chairman of the film sub-committee.