Born in 1880 the son of Frank Barling FRCVS and nephew of Professor Sir Gilbert Barling FRCS, who served on the College Council 1904-12, he was educated at Birmingham University, qualified through the Conjoint Board, graduated in the University of London, and was a house surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. The whole of his subsequent career, apart from war service, was spent at Birmingham where he rose to be Professor of Surgery and Consulting Surgeon to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, having joined the staff of the General Hospital in 1910 as assistant to his uncle. He was a prime mover in plan-ning the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to amalgamate the General and Queen's Hospitals in the 1930s. During the first world war he served in the RAMC in France, rose to the rank of Colonel AMS, was mentioned in dispatches and created CMG. After the war he became a leading figure in medical activities of many kinds in Birmingham, prominent in practice, teaching, and professional affairs. He was consulting surgeon to the Children's Hospital, and to the Guest Hospital, Dudley. During the second world war, as a consultant to the Emergency Medical Service, his duties covered a large area of the south and west Midlands during the period of heavy German air-raids. After retiring in 1945 with the title of Emeritus Professor he became the first chairman of the South Worcestershire Hospitals Management Committee, and energetically but tactfully promoted the integration of fifteen hospitals scattered over a wide, mainly rural district. He served on the Radium Commission, and was President of the Association of Surgeons in 1934. At the College Barling was a member of Council 1935-43, and became Chairman of the Court of Examiners on which he served through the war years 1939-45, when his friendly relations with colleagues in various cities eased the difficulties of arranging the examinations at different centres. Barling married Gladys Rose Mills, sister of Percival Mills FRCS; they lived at Edgbaston with a country house at Alfrick Court near Worcester. In 1940-45 Barling and his wife took charge of a great part of the College library and other possessions, such as the Hunterian paintings, in the house and barns at Alfrick. They had a fine garden and orchards there but later moved to a smaller house in the same village, where Barling cultivated a tract of woodland, for he and his wife were both skilled in country pursuits. Barling died suddenly at South Bank, Worcester on 4 July 1960 aged 79, and Mrs Barling on 24 December 1961 at Alfrick. They were survived by their daughter Elizabeth, an Oxford graduate distinguished in personnel management, and two sons Michael (DOMS, ophthalmic surgeon to Peterborough Hospital) and Anthony (DObst) in general practice in Northamptonshire; both sons had been on active service in the second world war, Anthony being a survivor of the Arnhem parachute attack. The memorial service for Professor Barling at Alfrick Church was attended by 200 people. He was a man of firm character, simple, direct and generous. Publication: *The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood*, with C G Parsons, 2 vols, 1933; 2nd edition, 1954.