[1] Barham was born in November 1836 at the Strand, London, younger surviving son of Robert Barham (1807-1888), who owned a retail dairy and had been a licensed victualler, and Altezeera Henrietta (died 1886), daughter of George Davey, of Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.
[2][3] Barham was apprenticed to a carpenter before working with his father in the dairy business, and in 1864 he founded the Express County Milk Company.
[1] At his own expense Barham helped to introduce modern dairy practices in India and to the West Indies.
[1] In 1900 he was appointed a member of the Committee on Milk Standards, he issued a minority report of which most was adopted by the Board of Agriculture.
[1] With the purchase by his youngest son, Colonel Arthur Saxby Barham, of Hole Park, Rolvenden, Kent, the family were counted amongst the landed gentry.