[2] He was born on 21 January 1848 in Hungerford, Berkshire, the son of Thomas Bare (1805–1891) and Harriet Meggs (1815–1881).
He married Clari Sharples (1852–1907) on 20 December 1876 in Holy Trinity Church, Southport[3] and they had the following children: His wife Clari died on 18 August 1907 and he married Ada Rosalind Nelson (1873–1958) in 1908 in Birkenhead.
He studied architecture with Charles Edmund Giles from 1861 to 1863 and then became assistant to Thomas John Willson and Samuel Joseph Nicholl until 1868.
He was District Resident Assistant on the London & North Western Railway working for William Baker from 1 September 1866 to 30 June 1876.
[4] In 1876 he established himself in independent practice and about 10 years later formed a partnership with Henry Langton Beckwith.