George, the son of John Barker and his wife Sarah was baptised at St Mary’s Woodham Ferrers on 5th October 1890. At the time the family was living in The Street, Woodham Ferrers and John was employed as an agricultural labourer. By 1901 they were still living in the village and in addition to George there were three brothers and a sister living at home.
George’s mother Sarah died in March 1911 and was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard on 30th of that month.
George may have served originally in Royal Sussex Regiment but he later joined the Middlesex Regiment known as The Die Hards and served with them on the Western Front in France. It is not known when he landed in France but the battalion landed in August 1914 and had seen considerable action, including the Battle of Mons that month, by the time that George was killed. During early 1917, as part of 63rd Brigade, 37th Division, they had been involved in the 1st and 2nd Battles of the Scarpe and, at the time of his death, The Battle of Arleux all part of the Battle of Arras which raged from Easter Sunday 9th April until 16th May 1917. George was killed on 28th April during the attack on Monchy le Preux as part of the Battle of Arleux. The battalion war diary records that 21 other ranks were killed, 162 wounded and 98 missing including George during the operation.
George is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to almost 35,000 United Kingdom, South African and New Zealanders killed in the Arras Theatre for whom there are no known graves. The Canadians who died at Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras, are commemorated at Vimy Ridge. Arras is in The Pas de Calais, North Western France
He was awarded the Victory and British War medals. The war memorial in Woodham Ferrers also lists five other Barkers who served during the Great War but survived. It is likely that three of these were George’s brothers Alfred, Ernest and Leonard and it is quite probable that the others were his cousins.