Barker, Ernest, Sir, 1874-1960

Sir Ernest Barker was born on September 23, 1874, in Stockport, Cheshire, England.

He was an English historian, teacher, and writer. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford University. Barker was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1898 to 1905, St John's College, Oxford, from 1909 to 1913, and New College, Oxford, from 1913 to 1920. He spent a brief time at the London School of Economics. He served as Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927, and subsequently became Professor of Political Science at the University of Cambridge in 1928, being the first holder of the chair endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation. In June 1936, he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. Barker was knighted in 1944. In 1958, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His many works included "The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle" (1906), "Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the Present Day" (1915), "National Character and the Factors in its Foundation" (1927), "Reflections on Government" (1942) and "Principles of Social and Political Theory" (1951).

In 1900, he married Emily Isabel Salkeld (1871–1924) and, in 1927, he remarried Lady Olivia Stuart Horner (1891-1976). He died on February 17, 1960, in Cambridge, England.