BORN HULL 1892. SON OF MARY ANN BARKER, OF 64, SEATON STREET, FOUNTAIN ROAD, HULL. (WAR PENSION AND HULL DAILY MAIL ADDRESS 20/10/1919). HE HAD FIVE BROTHERS, (THREE SERVED IN FRANCE) & TWO SISTERS. EMPLOYED AT THE HULL OIL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, STONEFERRY, HULL. HE RESIDED AT 14, POPULAR GROVE, SCULCOATES LANE, HULL. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. KILLED IN ACTION ON 20/10/1916, AGED 25. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HDM, ON 07/11/1916 *
Hull Pals Memorial Post. CORPORAL CHRISTOPHER BARKER 11/512. Born in 1891, Christopher was the eighth of eleven children to George and Mary Ann Barker of 64 Seaton Street, Fountain Road, Hull. Working first as a Labourer in an Oil Works and then as a Belt Mender, he was among the first queues of enthusiastic young men rushing to enlist for the new battalions signing on the dotted line at Hull City Hall on 8th September 1914 and joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. He must have impressed, for just four days later he was promoted from Private to Corporal. After training at Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915, the Pals shipped for Alexandria in Egypt that December and they served there until late February when they left Port Said for Marseilles and then travelled north to the trenches of the Western Front. Christopher didn’t appear to go straight into the line as he was posted to the infamous ‘Bull Ring’ at Etaples, though I can find no record of whether he was there as a trainer or trainee. He returned to his comrades in September of 1916 and lasted barely a month. Christopher Barker was killed in action on 20th October 1916 and it appears his body was never recovered as his name is commemorated on Special Memorial 4 at Hebuterne Miltary Cemetery. His effects were returned to his grieving mother- a hymn book, notebook, letters and cards- not much in place of a son for a woman who had two more serving King and Country and would not be sure of their returning to her for another two years. Impossible to imagine the worry.
His death was reported in the Hull Daily Mail, on 22/10/1917, by his mother, sisters, brothers and friend.
