Herbert Mayer Barker was born in Old Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 23 February 1877 and was articled to Alexander Marshall Mackenzie (1848-1933) in Aberdeen from 1897 to 1901. During which time he studied at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen. He then worked as an assistant in the Caledonian Railway Company Architect's and Engineer's Department from 1901 to 1903; and to David Barclay Niven (1864-1942) and Herbert Hardy Wigglesworth (1866-1949) of Niven & Wigglesworth in London from 1903 to 1937; and to Walter John Tapper (1861-1935) in London in 1907-08.
In 1908 Barker moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where, after working as an assistant to Robert John Macdonald (1883-1945), he set up his own architectural practice at 85 Hutchinson Building, 429 Pender Street, Vancouver c.1910. He subsequently returned to Scotland in 1914. From 1919 to 1921 he worked as architect at the Department of Health for Scotland in Edinburgh. From 1921 he recommenced independent practice in Glasgow.
Barker was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1912 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1941. He died in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland on 2 April 1942.
For a detailed list of architectural projects by Herbert Mayer Barker sin Vancouver and Scotland see: the Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1660-1940
North Lonsdale School (North Vancouver), North Vancouver Masonic Assoc. Lodge Rooms, and North Vancouver Fire Hall No. 2, all in conjunction with A. Campbell Hope, 1909; houses: at Vancouver Heights, 1912, North Vancouver 1913, and Milngavrie and Bearsden (nr. Glasgow), 1922; farm cottage, fruit selling store and jam factory, Killermont Bridge, Glasgow; house at Patterton (nr. Glasgow), 1923; Kindergarten and house at Boarsden; house at Milngavrie. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1926]
For a detailed list of architectural projects by Herbert Mayer Barker sin Vancouver and Scotland see: the Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1660-1940