Ambrose Barker was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 anarchist activist.

Born in Earls Barton

Earls Barton

Earls Barton is a village and civil parish in eastern Northamptonshire, notable for its Saxon church and shoe-making heritage.The village was the inspiration for the film Kinky Boots and part of the film was shot here...

, Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

, Barker moved to Leyton

Leyton

Leyton is an area of north-east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, located north east of Charing Cross. It borders Walthamstow and Leytonstone; Stratford in Newham; and Homerton and Lower Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney....

 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...

 in 1878 to become an assistant schoolmaster

Schoolmaster

A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...

 and joined the National Secular Society

National Secular Society

The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...

. In 1880, he openly opposed Charles Bradlaugh

Charles Bradlaugh

Charles Bradlaugh was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866.-Early life:...

's support for the Coercion Bill. Bradlaugh was a leading figure in the Secular Society. Barker gained the support of the majority of the Stratford

Stratford, London

Stratford is a place in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located east northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an agrarian settlement in the ancient parish of West Ham, which transformed into an industrial suburb...

 branch of the Secular Society, but failed to influence its national politics.

The Stratford group disaffiliated from the National Society to form the "Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club". This group professed socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

, and Barker became their secretary. Joe Lane showed Barker newspapers produced by American anarchist Benjamin Tucker

Benjamin Tucker

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was a proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century, and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty.-Summary:Tucker says that he became an anarchist at the age of 18...

, and Barker took up a correspondence with Tucker.

Barker and Lane set up a new group, the Labour Emancipation League

Labour Emancipation League

The Labour Emancipation League was a socialist organisation in London.The origins of the league lay in the split of the Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club around Ambrose Barker from the National Secular Society in 1880...

, which in 1884 merged with H. M. Hyndman's organisation to form the Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

. The majority of the group soon split to form the Socialist League

Socialist League (UK, 1885)

The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from...

, and Barker followed Lane into the new organisation. By this time, Lane was an active anarchist, and sided with the anti-Parliamentary faction in the group. He appears to have left around the same time as Lane, at the end of the decade, and by 1895 was active in an organisation named the "Anarchist Communist Alliance".

In 1892, Barker became the secretary of Walthamstow

Walthamstow

Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...

 Workingmen's Club

Working men's club

Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...

, a post he held until 1950. Continuing in anarchist activism, in 1930, he was a founder member of the London Freedom Group. He appears to have become active in the National Secular Society again, and his partner Ella Twynan wrote several pieces for them.