Pamela Barton

Pamela Espeut Barton (4 March, 1917 - 13 November, 1943) was an English golfer. Known as "Pam," she was born in the London suburb of Barnes, the daughter of Henry Charles Johnston Barton and Ethel Maude Barton.

In 1934, at age 17, she won the French International Ladies Golf Championship and after being runner-up in 1934 and 1935, she won the 1936 British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship. She then traveled to the Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey where she won the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship over Maureen Orcutt. Her victory was the first by a foreign competitor in 23 years and the first time in 27 years that a player held both the British and U.S. titles simultaneously.

Pam Barton was a member of the British team to compete in the 1934 and 1936 Curtis Cup and in 1937 her book "A Stroke a Hole" was published in the United Kingdom by Blackie & Son.

In 1939 Pam Barton won her second British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship but following the outbreak of World War II she immediately signed up as an ambulance driver and served in London through the Battle of Britain. In early 1941 she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) with which she served as a Flight Officer in command of a staff of more than 600 at one of the largest stations.

In November 1943, 26-year-old Pam Barton was killed in the service of her country in an air crash. She is buried with military markings at the Margate Cemetery in Margate, Kent.

In her honor, the "Pam Barton Memorial Salver" is awarded to the winner of the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship.

In his 2001 book, "The Golf 100: Ranking the Greatest (Female) Golfers of All Time", Robert McCord ranked Pamela Barton 34th in his top forty.

References

*cite web|url=http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1940s/1948/480622.pdf|title=Pam Barton Memorial Day|last=Curtis|first=Margaret|format=PDF|date=June 1948|publisher=USGA|accessdate=2007-06-14