In 1997, he was invited to sign the Maurice Williams Roll of Notable Cinderella Philatelists, and in 2010 he was awarded the Revenue Society's Research Medal for his work in the field of revenue philately.
[1] He received his advanced education at the University of York from where he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in linguistics, after which he self-published The Language Question in Belgium in 1970.
[3] Scott Tiffney, librarian at the American Philatelic Research Library, has described Barefoot as a "notable stamp dealer", and observed that his catalogues began to appear as revenue philately began to enjoy a renaissance in the 1970s.
[15] In 2012 and 2013 a discussion took place in the pages of The Revenue Journal about the interface between postage stamp catalogues and revenue stamp catalogues in which the policies of the Stanley Gibbons (postage) and Barefoot (revenue) catalogues were compared and comment received from both, with John Barefoot observing that many of the most highly priced stamps in Gibbons' catalogues were used primarily or wholly for revenue (fiscal) purposes.
"[17] In 1997, Barefoot was invited to sign the Maurice Williams Roll of Notable Cinderella Philatelists.