Nugent Barker

Biography

Nugent Barker is a relatively unknown individual. In his book Who’s Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, Mike Ashley writes that, “This writer has all but passed into oblivion although he was popular in the 1920’s and 1930’s (27). This statement largely defines my efforts to research Nugent Barker. After hours of research, alongside librarians Mary Chapman and Joe Everett, I found only scraps of information. According to the birth records on Ancestry.com, Barker was born on March 29, 1888, and baptized on May 18th of that year. His parents were Harold and Rosetta Barker. At the time of his birth, his father was working on the stock exchange as a jobber. From the 1891 census, I learned that “Nugent” was his mother’s maiden name. In the 1911 census, it is reported that the Barker’s lived at 16 Cottesmore Gardens, Kensington. At this time, Nugent’s father still worked on the stock exchange, and he had two younger brothers, Guy and Harold. The census indicates that their household had servants, indicating that they were a fairly well-off family. At the time of this census, Nugent was 23, and it is noted that he was working as a painter/artist. The next available record is the 1939 England and Wales Register. At this time, Nugent was living with his widowed mother at 59 B Fairholme Road. Other members of the household include a maid for unpaid domestic duties. This document notes that Nugent was single, indicating he had never been married. Additional information reveals that Nugent had changed his profession as a painter to an author of short stories.

According to Wikipedia contributors, “In the late 1920’s, Barker lived at 16 Tite Street in Chelsea, in the house previously occupied by Oscar Wilde. Barker was still living at this address at the time of his death in 1955” (Wikipedia contributors). While this would be an interesting bit of trivia, the 1939 England and Wales Register indicates otherwise. Additionally, the Wikipedia page on “Tite Street” gives a list of its more prominent residents, and Nugent is not listed among them (Wikipedia contributors).

Lastly, there is evidence (however small) of his writing career. The GALE database, reveals that Barker also wrote for a publication called The Cornhill, a literary magazine (Brake).  Other mentions of Barker’s literary achievements note that he typically wrote ghost stories. Wikipedia, Alastair Gunn’s “Cyclopaedia of Ghost Story Writers”, and Mike Ashley’s Who’s Who in Horror and Fantasty Fiction each discuss the work Written With My Left Hand, from which comes a popular story titled, “Curious Adventure of Mr Bond” (Ashley 27). Additionally, the story found in Life and Letters, “Mrs. Sayce’s Guy,” fits the “ghost story” criteria.

Though there is little to be found about Nugent Barker’s life, the lack of information about him fits his writing style of being a ghost-writer. It seems as though Barker himself was elusive and mysterious, and that makes reading his story all the more romantic.