Sir Ernest Barker (23 September 1874 – 17 February 1960) was an English political scientist who served as Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927.

Life and career

Ernest Barker was born in Woodley, Cheshire, and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford. 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 was Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927, and subsequently became Professor of Political Science in 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. He was knighted in 1944. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958. Barker was married twice, firstly in 1900 to Emily Isabel Salkeld, with whom he had a son and two daughters; she died in 1924. In 1927 he married Olivia Stuart Horner; they had a son, Nicolas Barker, and a daughter. Barker died on 17 February 1960. There is a memorial stone to him in St Botolph's Church, Cambridge.

Works