Edmund William Barker (1 December 1920 – 12 April 2001, often referred to as "Edmund W. Barker", "E. W. Barker" or "Eddie Barker") was a politician and lawyer from Singapore. A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he served in the Cabinet from 1964 to 1988.
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Barker practised law in Singapore from 1952 to 1964 at the law firms Braddell Brothers and Lee & Lee. He was persuaded to enter politics in 1963 by Lee Kuan Yew.
Barker was elected a member of the Singapore Legislative Assembly in 1963, representing the constituency of Tanglin. He continued to represent the constituency in the Singapore Parliament through to 1988.
Barker served as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1963-64.[1] In 1964, he was appointed the Minister for Law, and continued to hold that post that until 1988. As Minister for Law, he drafted the Proclamation of Singapore of Singapore in 1965, announcing Singapore's separation from Malaysia. During his 25 years in Parliament, Barker also served as the Minister for National Development (1965-75), Minister for Home Affairs (1972), Minister for the Environment (1975-79), Minister for Science and Technology (1977-81) and Minister for Labour (1983).[2]
Barker retired from politics in 1988.
Other roles Barker held included being the first President of the Singapore National Olympic Council (1970-1990), President of the South-East Asia Peninsular Games Federation Council (1973), Chairman of the Bukit Turf Club (1989-94), and Chairman of the Singapore Stock Exchange (1989-93).
Barker was educated at Serangoon English School and Raffles Institution, before going on to Raffles College in 1940. A talented sports player, Barker was selected to represent Singapore as a member of the national hockey team while he was still a schoolboy.
During World War II, Barker traveled to Thailand as part of a medical health unit which was sent to look after Allied prisoners-of-war working on the Burma-Siam Railway.
After the war, Barker was awarded a Queen's Scholarship in 1946 to study in the United Kingdom at Cambridge University, where he read law at St Catherine's College. He was then called to the bar at the Inner Temple in London, and returned to Singapore to practice law.
A Eurasian Singaporean,[3] Barker was the son of Clarence Barker and Dorothy Evaline Paterson, and was of mixed German, Scottish, Japanese, Indonesian and Irish descent.
Barker was married to Gloria Hyacinth Quintal and had four children.[4]