Richard Fuller Barber
Colonel Richard Fuller Barber (c1880-1951)
1953 Obituary [1]
COL. RICHARD FULLER BARBER. D.S.O., Wh.Sc.. R.E.M.E., ret., had a distinguished career in the Royal Ordnance Corps, both at home and abroad, in the course of which he held several important appointments.
He obtained his technical training, which extended from 1893 to 1903, at Woolwich Polytechnic, the Goldsmiths Institute, the City of London College - where he gained a Whitworth Exhibition in 1901 - and at Durham College of Science.
After serving an apprenticeship in the Royal Gun and Carriage Factories of Woolwich Arsenal he was commissioned as inspector of ordnance machinery and posted to Devonport. From 1907 to 1911 he was principal instructor of military artificers in the ordnance college at Woolwich and until 1914 was instructor in machinery.
He then proceeded to France where he was in charge of workshops before joining the British Salonika Force. There, as chief inspector of ordnance machinery he was responsible for the ordnance workshops and for the upkeep of all armaments in the command.
After three years in the post of senior inspector of ordnance machinery, Irish Command, he received, in 1922, the appointment of chief ordnance mechanical engineer, British Army of the Rhine.
He was transferred in 1925 to the Southern Command where he carried out the same duties until 1928 when he was made assistant director of ordnance services (technical) at Army Headquarters, India.
Returning to England in 1934, he held in succession the positions of officer commanding Royal Army Ordnance Corps workshops at Bovington, Wiltshire, and chief ordnance mechanical engineer, Aldershot Command. After a period in the reserve of officers he was appointed officer commanding Army Ordnance Services Workshop at Woolwich, and in 1939 he was appointed assistant director of ordnance services (engineering), Aldershot Command. Two years later was transferred to the Eastern Command to take over similar duties.
He retired from the service in 1941. Col. Barber was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1920 and transferred to Membership five years later.
His death occurred on 22nd December 1951, within a day of completion of his seventy-first year.