Stephen Barker was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. Born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, he received a primary education before becoming a tailor. He migrated to Australia where he became an organiser of the Tramways Union. He served as secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council

Victorian Trades Hall

Victorian Trades Hall is a Trades Hall building located in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council....

 from 1901 to 1910. In 1910, he was elected to the Australian Senate

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 as a Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 Senator from Victoria. He was defeated in 1919, but re-elected in 1922. However, he died in 1924, and Joseph Hannan

Joseph Hannan

Joseph Francis Hannan was an Australian politician and trade unionist. Hannan was probably born in Yorkshire, England and emigrated with his family in 1888. He soon became involved in the union movement and was a member of the committee of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council that established the...

was appointed as his replacement.