Change and Continuity

Kathleen (Kay) Esther Barker graduated with an honours degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, where she studied at Girton College. Subsequently she obtained a postgraduate certificate in education from the University of Birmingham, and went on to study theology and social science at William Temple College, Rugby. After seven years of teaching mathematics in England she came to Hong Kong to teach mathematics and Biblical knowledge at St. Paul’s Co-educational College. In March 1961, she was appointed Principal of St. Stephen’s Girls’ College and was to continue to head the school for almost thirty-one years.

During those three decades Kay Barker served on a number of public bodies, including the Education Commission, the Examinations Authority and the Council of the Hong Kong School for the Deaf. Her contribution to education in Hong Kong was recognised by her appointment as a Justice of the Peace in 1971, by being made an M.B.E. in 1981, and by the conferment of the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences (honoris causa) by the University of Hong Kong in 1989. She is now in retirement in Cambridge, England, where she has been appointed Registrar of the Roll and a Bye-Fellow of Girton College.