Robert Barltrop (1922-2009) was an English socialist activist, essayist, and biographer.
Barltrop grew up in the East End of London, descended from a long line of blacksmiths, although his father was a horse fodder dealer; he won a scholarship to the Sir George Monoux Grammar School in Walthamstow, now Sir George Monoux College. During World War II, he served with the Royal Air Force, but was invalided out with tuberculosis before seeing active service.
He was for many years a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. He had various careers and at different times was a professional boxer, a labourer, a strip cartoonist, a schoolteacher and a sign-painter. Barltrop also published widely and his books include: The Monument: Story of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (1975), Jack London: The Man, the Writer, the Rebel (1977), Muvver Tongue with Jim Wolveridge (1980), A Funny Age (Growing up in North East London between the Wars) (1985) and Yes Mush: A Cockney Dictionary: The Cockney Language and Its World (intended to be published in 2004, but in fact unfinished at the end of his life).
He was a regular contributor to the Newham Recorder newspaper, producing some 1200 illustrated weekly articles for them during a 24-year period up to his death, and contributing also to other Recorder titles.