Harold Barker

The son of the Dean of Carlisle, Harold Baker attended Eton College before going to Oxford University. He rowed with the Christ Church College eights and in 1908 they won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. Barker also won that year’s Silver Goblets with Albert Gladstone, and he also won his rowing Blue in 1908. At the Olympics later in the year, Berker was a silver medallist with the Leander coxless fours.

Victory in the 1909 Boat Race followed for Barker as the Oxford eight won by three and a half lengths with what many regarded was the finest Oxford crew ever seen. Barker and Gladstone followed that with victory in the University Pairs that year.

Barker coached the winning Oxford crew in the 1913 Boat Race and then served as a captain with the 5th Royal Yorkshire Battalion (The Green Howards) in World War I. After the War he coached the Oxford crew in the 1921 and 1926 Boat Races but without success. Barker worked for the Board of Education and later practiced as a barrister, but in his spare time he enjoyed nothing more than coaching young rowers who were members of house crews at Oxford.

Barker’s brothers-in-law Ronald and Eric Powell were both rowers and he rowed against Eric in the 1908 Boat Race. Coincidentally, both men rowed at No.7. Barker’s son Hugo rowed in the Oxford Trial Eights in 1934.