William George Barker

Note:This article is about the WWI pilot. For the artist, see Bill Barker.

Lt.-Col. William George Barker (November 2, 1894 – March 12, 1930) was a Canadian WWI fighter ace and Victoria Cross winner.

Born on a family farm in Dauphin, Manitoba he enlisted in the Canadian Mounted Rifles in December 1914 soon after the outbreak of WWI. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a gunner/observer in Corps Cooperation in March 1916. He qualified as an observer, and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in November 1916 in the concluding stages of the Battle of the Somme. He commenced pilot training at Netheravon in January 1917, but served a second tour on Corps Cooperation machines as a pilot, prior to becoming a fighter pilot on the Sopwith Camel with 28, 66, and 139 Squadrons.

His boldness and skill soon made him one of the top fighter pilots in to war. Serving in France and Northern Italy he shot down 46 enemy planes in 11 months. One of his most successful, and also most controversial raids, fictionalized by Ernest Hemingway in the short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, was on Christmas day 1917 in Italy. Catching the Germans off guard he and his wingman, Harold Hudson, badly damaged an airfield, setting fire to one hangar and damaging several German aircraft.

Having flown more than 900 combat hours in two and one half years, Barker's wing commander in Italy transferred him home to the UK in September 1918. In London at RAF HQ he was granted a 10-day roving commission in France, selected the Sopwith Snipe as his personal machine, and attached himself to 201 Squadron, whose squadron commander, Cyril Leman, was a pal from his days as an observer.

On day 10, Sunday, October 27th, 1918, while delivering his Snipe to an aircraft depot, he crossed enemy lines at 21,000 feet above the Foret de Mormal. He attacked an enemy two-seater which broke up, its crew escaping by parachute. By his own admission he was careless and was then bounced by a formation of Fokker DVIIs. In a descending battle against 15 or more enemy machines, Barker was three times wounded in the legs, then his left elbow was blown away, yet he managed to control his Snipe and shoot down or drive down three more enemy aircraft. The dogfight took place immediately above the lines of the Canadian Corps and it is estimated 100,000 watched the latter stage of his aerial battle from the ground. Severely wounded and bleeding to death, his life was saved by the men of an RAF Kite Balloon Section, who got him to a field dressing station.

He clung to life until mid-January 1919 in the hospital at Rouen, France, and then was transported back to England. He was not fit enough to walk the necessary few paces for the investiture at Buckingham Palace until March 1st, 1919.

Barker returned to Canada in May of that year as the most decorated Canadian soldier of the war, with the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Military Cross and two Bars, the French Croix de guerre and two Italian Silver Medals for Valour. He was also mentioned in dispatches three times. No one in Canadian military history has matched his record of decorations awarded and hence he is the most decorated soldier in Canadian history.

He also formed a business partnership with fellow-Victoria Cross recipient and Canadian ace Billy Bishop which lasted for about three years. Lieutenant Colonel Barker rejoined the infant Canadian Air Force in 1922, and was appointed acting director of the RCAF in early 1924. He graduated from RAF Staff College, Andover, in 1926. After leaving the RCAF he became the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club, and involved in tobacco growing farms in southwestern Ontario.

He suffered from post traumatic stress and the physical effects of his 1918 gunshot wounds, and struggled with alcoholism in the last few years of his life. He died in 1930 near Ottawa when he lost control of his Fairchild KR-21 biplane trainer during a demonstration flight to the RCAF. Barker, aged 35, was at the time the president and general manager of Fairchild Aircraft in Montreal, Quebec.

His funeral, the largest national state event in Toronto's history, was attended by an honour guard of 2,000 soldiers. The cortege stretched for more than a mile and a half, and included the Chief of the General Staff and his senior officers, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Mayor of Toronto, three federal government cabinet ministers, and six other Victoria Cross recipients. An honour guard was also provided by the United States Army. Some 50,000 spectators lined the streets of Toronto enroute to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where Barker was interred in his wife's family crypt in the Mausoleum.

An elementry school in Dauphin, Manitoba is named in his honour.

For further details refer to author Wayne Ralph's BARKER VC: The Classic Story of a Legendary First World War Hero (Grub Street, London, 1999 - ISBN-1-902304-31-4)

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=42026)
• Burial location of William Barker (http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ggcantor.htm) "Toronto"
• Location of William Barker's Victoria Cross (http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ddcancwm.htm) "Canadian War Museum"Template:Lived