James Barker

A country lad

James Barker moved to London from Ipswich in order to improve his employment opportunities as a compositor in the printing business. Whilst travelling in the upper deck of a London Bus he was attracted to The Salvation Army who were conducting an open-air meeting nearby and was converted at the Bethnal Green Corps. His conviction led him to become a Salvation Army officer, and he was instrumental in producing the first War Cry publication in England in December 1879.

The Salvation Army officially commenced its work in Australia in 1881 with the arrival of Captain and Mrs Sutherland (although it dates its unofficial commencement back to 1880, when Gore and Saunders held their first meeting in Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens ).

Due to labour problems on the Adelaide wharf, the ship was forwarded to Melbourne where the Barkers disembarked not knowing a single soul. However, word of their coming preceded them and, amongst those welcoming them, was 74-year-old Dr John Singleton, the founder of several Christian-oriented welfare agencies.

Singleton saw a successor for his work in James Barker of The Salvation Army. He introduced Barker to visitations of prisoners in the Melbourne Gaol. Later Barker and other Salvation Army officers were given permission by the authorities to hold religious meetings and interview the prisoners privately. Barker recognised the need for institutionalised work to assist the prisoners on their release from gaol. Consequently, in Melbourne, in December 1883, a Prison-Gate Brigade Home was opened in Carlton; it was The Salvation Army's first institution anywhere in the world.

Before long, Alice and James Barker were running Prison-Gate Homes in Melbourne, Sydney, Ballarat, Auckland and Castlemaine, and also Rescue Homes (for women) in Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin.

The Army in Australasia expanded rapidly under the Barkers. Fifteen months after they arrived in Melbourne by mistake, the Barkers conducted the first Salvation Army Anniversary Campaign in the Melbourne Exhibition Building (then Australia's biggest auditorium) attended by a capacity crowd.

The social wing of The Salvation Army also grew rapidly under the Barkers' enthusiastic leadership. So much so that they were recalled to International Headquarters in London in the mid-1890s to build up the Army's social wing there.

Barker dreamed of the day when he would obtain the same access to English prisons as he had in Australia. In 1901 he finally achieved it, but, on his first such visit he became ill, and some little time later succumbed to diabetes and was promoted to Glory in May 1901.

Alice Barker continued her work until promoted to Glory during the influenza epidemic of 1918.