Geoffrey Barber – Past Court Assistant and Past Steward: 1948 – 2026

Geoffrey Barber 1948 – 2026

Already a successful property developer, Geoffrey was admitted to the livery in 1989. His enthusiasm for, and devotion to,  the Company was immediately evident. Successive Masters, needing to find volunteers, would approach Geoffrey first, and invariably get a positive response from him, especially where a charitable element was involved. Charity was never far from his thoughts.

So, just by way of example, Geoffrey was a keen participant in the Plumbers’ teams in charity quizzes; there he invariably won the raffle, after which he would auction off his prize. For several years he swam in, and organised, the Company’s team in the Inter Liveries Swimathon. Geoffrey was also an enthusiastic member of the Company’s Golfing Society, emerging a clear winner of the Bob Smith Cup in 1998, and continuing to compete – playing  left-handed from 2007 because of his car crash in 2001.

Geoffrey also demonstrated quite unexpected prowess at sprinting. On the occasion of the Master’s weekend in Paris in 1997 he witnessed a bag snatch on the metro; he set off in hot and successful pursuit of the snatcher, and returned to a hero’s welcome at the Plumbers’ hotel.

Geoffrey’s generosity towards the Company was also equally in evidence. He became a great benefactor, starting in 1991 when he endowed the Lili Sarah Barber gold medal award, in honour of his mother.

Ever mindful of the Company’s aims, and advocacy for apprenticeships, Geoffrey recruited his seventeen year old son Neill to be his apprentice in 1993. Neill was admitted to the livery not long afterwards.

With his cheerfulness, positive outlook and general zest for life Geoffrey was an obvious choice to be appointed a Steward, which he was in 1997. During his stewardship he organised a fascinating visit to the British Library, where his cousin worked, and then, at the end of his term, he hosted a most successful Ladle Dinner at the Carlton Club in 2003.

In the meantime however, on 8th January 2001 he had been involved in a truly horrific car accident, involving injuries far too numerous to list.  As our Assistant Clerk Eileen Lilley put it in the Newsletter “God could not face his jokes” and therefore Geoffrey  made a wholly remarkable recovery, aided in no small part by what he delighted in telling his visitors was a “crash diet”. Where was he on the day of his discharge from hospital in May ? At the RAC Club in Epsom, for the Swimathon, for which he had organised, from hospital, the Plumbers’ team. He said on many occasions how much he appreciated the support that he had received from the Company over this period.

In 2012 he was elected to the Court, but sadly illness forced him to resign only three years later. At the Court meeting in October 2015 he was rightly thanked for his extraordinarily generous gift towards the Company’s 400th  anniversary statue appeal – the Plumbers Apprentice Statue now stands proudly on the concourse at Cannon Street Station on the site of our former Livery Hall.

There followed a long period of ill health, during which he was lovingly cared for by his wife Daphne, herself a liveryman since 2002, our Almoner and also a Past Steward. Our thoughts are with Daphne, Neill and all their family.