Barton is a non-canonical character who was created for the adaptation of In a Glass Darkly, the second episode of the Thames Television series The Agatha Christie Hour. He is an English soldier. During a battle he is trapped in no-man's land. Matthew Armitage crawls out and rescues him but both are injured by shell-fire as they crawl back to the British lines. Later, Sylvia Carslake tells her brother that Richard had been decorated for bravery. She did not specify the event but it was perhaps for this incident.
Barton was played in the film by John Wheatley. This character does not exist in the original story.