The Barker Brothers

This scratchy image of the Barker brothers had previously gone unnoticed in a collection of family papers. It was simply captioned 'Eli Barker with his three Brothers in the 1st World War'. However with some skilful digging by one of our volunteers, we can now reveal the identity of all four men.

John Charles Barker (1871-1952)

John had already served in the Boer War, when he enlisted in Brisbane in September 1915, he was 44 years old. When he left Australia he was initially assigned to the 9th Infantry Battalion, 11th Reinforcements, then transferred to the 49th. He was later assigned to a number of police corps including: Headquarters Police, the Mounted Military Police, then the Anzac Police Corps, whilst serving in France.

John Barker contracted pleurisy and was invalided first to England, and then Australia, where he returned in March 1917.

Eli Barker (1879-1959)

Eli Bakrer had previously served with the Queensland Military Forces, Toowoomba as a 2nd Lieutenant. Employed as a teacher, when he enlisted in the AIF in 1916 he was aged 36. He was promoted to Captain whilst Officer in Charge of the Darwin Guard, and later was appointed to the Office of Alien Registration, in relation to all ships calling at the port of Darwin.

Compulsory registration began in 1916 with the introduction of the Regulations which required all non-British residents living in or entering Australia to register with customs officials or the local police.

Richard William Barker (1869-1948)

Richard Barker stated he was age 41 when he enlisted in April 1918, however records show he was actually 49. He was assigned to the 11th Light Horse Regiment reinforcements and embarked from Sydney in June 1918. They trained first in Egypt then served with the unit in Damascus and Syria.

Richard was invalided to hospital in Cairo suffering with malaria and returned to Australia in January 1919. After he returned to health, he turned his hand to carpentry before settling in Stanthorpe.

James Frederick Barker (1876-1946)

James Barker had also served in the Boer War, enlisted in March 1916, aged 40. He served as Transport Officer on two voyages; firstly on the transport ship HMAT Commonwealth which left Brisbane, 28 March 1916, returning from Egypt on the Armadale in May 1916. His second voyage  was on the Miltiades in August 1916 returning to Australia on the Ballarat in January 1917.

James Barker continued his association with the armed services until 1931 when he resigned command of the 5th Light Horse Regiment. He was awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces long service medal and as further recognition of his services, he had conferred upon him the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Many thanks to QANZAC 100 Volunteer Judy Gilloway for revealing the stories of the Barker Brothers.

Further reading:

• 5656 Deas Family photographs, State Library of Queensland
• Service record: BARKER, John Charles
• Service record: BARKER, James Frederick
• Service record: BARKER, Eli
• Service record: BARKER, Richard William