Ralph Hammond Cecil Barker (21 October 1917 – 16 May 2011) was an English non-fiction author with over twenty-five books to his credit. He wrote mainly about the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

(RFC) and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

(RAF) operations in the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and Second World Wars, and about

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

Life and career

Born in

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party M ...

, he was educated at

Hounslow College Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in Gr ...

, and on leaving school joined the '' Sporting Life'' in 1934. Subsequently, he went into banking. He had started writing, and several of his sketches were used in

West End West End most commonly refers to: * West End of London, an area of central London, England * West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England West End may also refer to: Pl ...

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own du ...

s.Obituary of Ralph Barker
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 20 June 2011. Following the outbreak of World War II, in 1940 he joined the RAF as a wireless operator and air gunner. He flew with Nos. 47 and 39 squadrons on torpedo missions against Axis ships bringing supplies to

Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

's forces in the Western Desert in North Africa. These missions, from bases in Malta and North Africa, led to heavy losses amongst the

Bristol Beaufort The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. At l ...

aircraft carrying them out. Barker's time in this theatre of war was ended by a crash in which his pilot and navigator died. He returned to Britain, and switched to flying transport aircraft. He completed two thousand flying hours before he was demobilised in 1946. He briefly went back to banking, before going into

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

as a radio operator. At the end of 1948, he rejoined the RAF and went to Germany as a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

officer in connection with the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...

. He spent two years in service broadcasting at

BFN The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (german: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, ''BfN'') is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government's ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. He was then posted to the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

to work on official war narratives. His first book, ''Down in the Drink'', was published in 1955, the first of many on the subject of

military aviation Military aviation comprises military aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling aerial warfare, including national airlift ( air cargo) capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a war thea ...

. Barker left the RAF in 1961 to write full-time. He was a frequent contributor of feature articles to the ''

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''. He turned to cricket writing in 1964, with ''Ten Great Innings''.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's '' Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he be ...

, reviewing ''Ten Great Bowlers'', its follow-up, described Barker as "a master of the reconstruction of past cricket matches". His most substantial book on cricket is a history of Tests between England and Australia, published in 1969, which included a report of every match and a summary of each series. The statistics were provided by Irving Rosenwater. The cricket historian

David Frith David Edward John Frith (born 16 March 1937) is a cricket writer and historian. Cricinfo describes him as "an author, historian, and founding editor of '' Wisden Cricket Monthly''". Life and career David Frith was born in Gloucester Place in L ...

said that his most significant contribution to cricket might have been his research into the death in 1912 of the former England fast bowler Tom Richardson, which proved that the rumours that he had committed suicide were untrue.Wisden Obituaries – 2011: BARKER, RALPH HAMMOND CECIL
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' 2012 edition. Retrieved 22 September 2016 Barker played regularly for the RAF's cricket club, the Adastrians, and subsequently for several clubs in Surrey, including West Surrey, whom he captained for a number of years. Barker was married to performer

Diana Darvey Diana Magdalene Roloff (21 April 1945 – 11 April 2000), known professionally as Diana Darvey, was a British actress, singer and dancer, best known for her appearances on ''The Benny Hill Show''. Early life and career The daughter of a form ...

from 1995 until her death on 11 April 2000. Barker died on 16 May 2011, aged 93.

Bibliography

Cricket

*''Ten Great Innings'' (1964) *''Ten Great Bowlers'' (1967) *''England Versus Australia: Test Cricket 1877–1968'' (with Irving Rosenwater) (1969) *''Cricketing Family Edrich'' (1976) *''Innings of a Lifetime, 1954–77'' (1982) *''Purple Patches'' (1987)

Aviation

*''Down in the Drink'' (1955) *''The Ship-Busters: The Story of the R.A.F. Torpedo-Bombers'' (1957) *''Strike Hard, Strike Sure: Epics of the Bombers'' (1963) *''The Thousand Plane Raid: The Story of the First Thousand Bomber Raid on Cologne'' (1965) *''Great Mysteries of the Air'' (1966) *''Verdict on a Lost Flyer: Story of Bill Lancaster'' (1969) *''The

Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded annually (and later, biennially) to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flying ...

Races'' (1971) *''Torpedo Bomber'' (first American edition 1967, originally published in England as "The Ship-Busters") *''The Blockade Busters'' (1976) *''Survival in the Sky'' (1976) *''The Hurricats'' (1978) *''Royal Air Force at War (Epic of Flight Series)'' (1982) *''The Royal Flying Corps in France: From Mons to the Somme (History & Politics)'' (1994) *''The Royal Flying Corps in France: From Bloody April 1917 To Final Victory'' (1995) *''A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War One (Brief Histories)'' (2002) *''Men of the Bombers: Remarkable Incidents in World War II'' (2005)

Other subjects

*''The Last Blue Mountain'' (1959) *''Against the Sea: True Stories of Survival and Disaster'' (1972) *''One Man's Jungle: A Biography of

F. Spencer Chapman Frederick Spencer Chapman, (10 May 1907 – 8 August 1971) was a British Army officer and World War II veteran, most famous for his exploits behind enemy lines in Japanese occupied Malaya. His medals include the following: the Distinguished ...

, D.S.O.'' (1975) *''Goodnight, Sorry for Sinking You: Story of S. S. "City of Cairo"'' (1984) *''Children of the "

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

": A War Crime and Its Victims'' (1987)

References

Sources

*Ralph Barker & Irving Rosenwater, ''England v Australia: A compendium of Test cricket between the countries 1877–1968'',

Batsford Books Batsford Books is an independent British book publisher. Batsford was founded in 1843 by Bradley Thomas Batsford. For some time it was an imprint of Pavilion Books. Upon the purchase of Pavilion Books by HarperCollins, on 1 December 2021 B. T. Ba ...

, 1969; . Biographical information on Barker is given on the dust-jacket

External links

''Survival in the Sky'' (publisher blurb)
googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 20 August 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Ralph 1917 births 2011 deaths Aviation writers Cricket historians and writers English military writers English non-fiction writers Royal Air Force officers English male non-fiction writers Royal Air Force pilots of World War II