John Henry Barker

John Henry Barker (1867-1950)

c1867 Born at Guisborough

1893-1900 Engineer and General Manager Cambridge Electrical Supply Co

1901-02 General Manager C. A. Parsons and Co

1903 Engine and Dynamo Superintendent at Brush Electrical Engineering Co

1904-06 Private practice

1906-14 General manager and later Managing Director of Birmingham Metal and Munitions Co

1911 Living at 13 Yateley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham: John Henry Barker (age 44 born Guisborough), Engineer and General manager and Ammunition Works. With his wife Martha Anne Barker (age 43 born Salop) and their daughter Dorothy Gyseburne Barker (age 13 born Cambridge). Three servants.

1915 Special Director of Greenwood and Batley

1916-20 Managing Director of Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss

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1950 Obituary

"JOHN HENRY BARKER, whose death occurred at his home in Warwick on 10th March 1950, at the age of eighty-three, had acquired in the course of his long career engineering experience which was of great benefit to the profession. After completing his general education at the Grammar School in Guisborough, Yorkshire, and Middlesbrough High School and attending science classes, he began, in 1884, to serve a four years' pupilage in the locomotive shops of the former North Eastern Railway at Darlington, first under Mr. Alexander McDonnell and afterwards under Mr. T. W. Worsdell. He then entered the drawing office. of Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Company, Ltd., at Newcastle upon Tyne, but relinquished this appointment to become a lecturer in machine construction at the Durham College of Science.

During 1891 he was at sea as a marine engineer in the Anchor liners Ethiopia and Algeria. His next post was that of resident engineer on the construction of the Newburn bridge across the Tyne. He then turned his attention to electrical engineering, and in 1893 became engineer and general manager of the Cambridge Electricity Supply Co.

In 1901 Mr. Barker accepted an appointment as general manager to Messrs. C. A. Parsons and Company, Ltd., Heaton, but within two years he moved to Loughborough, where he was superintendent in charge of the engine and dynamo department of the Brush Electrical Engineering Company, Ltd. He was back in Newcastle again in 1904 and for two years was in private practice there as a consulting engineer. His next appointment, which began in 1906, was that of general manager, and later managing director, of the Birmingham Metal and Munitions Co, with which he remained until 1914 when he joined Messrs. Greenwood and Batley, Ltd., Leeds, as a special director. A year later, however, he became managing director of Messrs. Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss, Ltd., an appointment he retained until 1920, when he resumed his seat on the board of Messrs. Greenwood and Batley with the duties of general manager. His retirement from this office took place in 1928. He continued, however, in spite of advancing years, to take an active part in his profession being director and chairman of the Mint, Birmingham, until 1933, and subsequently director of Messrs. John Shaw and Company, and subsidiary companies, until 1949.

Mr. Barker, who was elected a Member in 1921, will be remembered for the valuable services he rendered to the Institution over a number of years. He was Chairman of the Yorkshire Branch in 1926-27 and a Member of Council. He was vice-chairman in 1928 and 1929. Following his retirement from that office he was re-elected to the Council. His contributions to the PROCEEDINGS included an address on "Efficiency", which he delivered to the Yorkshire Branch in 1926, and a particularly interesting lecture, which he gave in 1927, entitled "Scientific Societies—A Retrospect and Prospect". He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the Institution of Electrical Engineers."

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