Thomas Henry Barker

Thomas Henry Barker (18 May 1841 – 9 April 1917) was Secretary of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce from 1884 to 1912. He was made Chevalier of the Order of Saint Anna as a clerk with James Baines & Co., owners of the Black Ball Line of ships (at the time one of the largest shipping companies in Liverpool ). Later he moved to work for Reynold, Mann & Co., ship-owners and East India merchants, for whom he travelled extensively to America, Australia, and elsewhere. — with Barker instrumental in much of their organisation.

West African trade was also of great importance to the Chamber around the time when Barker became Secretary, and he was involved along with Sir Alfred Jones in establishing the West African Trade Section. The following year, Cooke was sent to Siberia to make "inquiries on behalf of the Section", ), after which he visited Shenyang and Harbin also in China. Then he travelled through Russia, visiting Irkutsk (and the Convict Settlement at Alexandrowski), then Tomsk and Omsk. The trip ended with a week in Moscow and St Petersburg, "where he was received by, amongst others, the British Minister (Sir Charles Scott), and Prince Khilkoff". at 9 Earle Street in Liverpool, His siblings were Charles Frederick Barker (1838–1887), Elizabeth Barker (1838–1840) and Joseph Bolton Barker (1844–?).

Thomas Henry was living at 79 Canning Street, Liverpool in 1861 at the age of 19, with his mother Elizabeth (already a widow) and working as a ships' clerk.

Barker enjoyed travelling, and as well as visiting many different parts of the world in the course of his professional duties he also travelled for pleasure. In 1908 after the Conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Montreal he went on a journey to Japan and China and returned to Liverpool via the Trans-Siberian Railway soon after it was opened.

In April 1906 (fifty years after starting his career) the members of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce presented Barker with a large oil portrait of himself, which afterwards hung in the Chambers' offices and today is held by his descendants. Barker retired in 1912 and died five years later aged 75, in West Kirby.