Anthony Barber - Later Years

Later Years

Barber did not seek re-election at the general election of October 1974, and left front-line politics. He was made a life peer in January 1975 as Baron Barber, of Wentbridge in the County of West Yorkshire, and served as Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank from that 1974 to 1987, where John Major was his personal assistant. Barber was also a director of BP from 1979 to 1988. He visited Nelson Mandela in prison, and was a member of the Franks Committee that investigated the Falklands War. In 1991, he became chair of the RAF Benevolent Association’s appeal for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, which raised £26 million.

He suffered from Parkinson's disease in later years, and died in Suffolk in 2005. He was married twice, with two daughters from his first marriage.