[Lady Barker]. Authoress, the eldest daughter of the late W. G. Stewart, secretary of Jamaica, where she was born. She was sent to England when she was two years old and returned to Jamaica in 1850. Two years later she married Captain (afterward Colonel Sir) G. R. Barker. After the death of Sir George in 1860, she, in 1865, married Mr. (afterward Sir) Frederick Napier Broome, who was then in New Zealand. Lady Broome wrote and published Station Life in New Zealand (1869); which was so well received that she was encouraged to other efforts, among them being A Christmas Cake in Four Parts (1871); Traveling About New and Old Ground (1871); Ribbon Stories (1872); Station Amusements in New Zealand (1873); Sybill’s Book (1873); This Troublesome World (1874); The White Rat (1880); besides other works on housekeeping, cooking and home life. Her books were all published in London, where she accepted the post of lady superintendent of the National Training School of Cookery. She was very popular in New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Western Australia and Trinidad, where she successively resided with her husband.
