Barker was born in the first quarter of 1871 in Prestwich Park,[a][1] then in Lancashire, to Mary Catherine (née Howell), from Bridgend and George Baker, from Manchester.

[2] He enjoyed the patronage of Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth, to whom he dedicated two works, and of the artist Sir Ernest Waterlow, R.A.[2] As an illustrator, he produced sketches and covers for The Poster, for whom he also wrote.

[13] One of the drawings, A Cloud to Starboard, was reproduced as a full page in a 1902 edition of The Magazine of Art, to accompany a review of the book.

[15] He contributed to the short-lived (1901-1903) magazine Western Counties Graphic, using the pen name "Rekab" ("Baker", written backwards).

[2] In May 1914, he exhibited a number of oil portraits (of Miss Dorothy M. Taylor, Gorphwysfa, Penart; Dr W. Edmund Thomas, Ashfield, Bridgend; Miss Dollie Allen, Llwyn Celyn, Bridgend; and Mr A. Taylor, Inspector of Schools), plus other works in oil and watercolour "at Cardiff in connection with the South Wales Art Society".

[21] Baker also taught art and gave public lectures on related subjects for a number of schools and colleges across South Wales.

In 1904 Baker was witness to a case of manslaughter which occurred outside his home, at 1, Coychurch Road, Bridgend, and gave evidence at the subsequent inquest.

[2] He was aged 48, and was survived by his widowed mother, his (younger) sister, Mary Catherine Helen ("Nellie"), also an artist and teacher, and a fiancee, Miss Lillie Abbott.

He described him as having:[34] a black moustache and closely cropped bristling hair... dressed like George Bernard Shaw with a Homberg, Norfolk coat, knicker-bocker trousers, with the tops of his hose turned down below the knee.His oil painting Ewenny Castle (actually depicting Ewenny Priory) is in the collection of the National Museum Wales, at National Museum Cardiff.

Eleven works (eight prints; two drawings, 'Tree Study - Symbolical' and 'Peace'; and a watercolour, 'Carrick Fergus Castle') are in the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea.

Two miniature pen-and-ink drawings, A Crusader and A Spanish Galleon, provided by his sister after Baker's death, are in Queen Mary's Dolls' House, part of the Royal Collection.