Barker was born in London, England, to English father George Barker (1879–1965), a police constable and former Army batman, and Irish mother Marion Frances (1881–1953), née Taaffe, from Mornington, County Meath, near Drogheda, Ireland.
[1][2][3][4] His elder brother was the poet George Barker; they were raised at Battersea, London, and the family later lived at Upper Addison Gardens, Holland Park.
[6] Barker lived in Cornwall from 1947 to 1948, where he and Ilse were involved with the artists' colony in St Ives.
Kit later taught with Hassel Smith, Elmer Bischoff and David Park at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (1951–1952).
During their time in the USA, the Barkers stayed at Yaddo artists' community in Saratoga Springs, New York.