Description:George Herbert Barber (1860-1946) had a difficult childhood. His mother died when he was five and he was forced to enter the notorious Chell workhouse after his father became too ill to work. He taught himself to write and also learnt mathematics. He even learned to fly aged sixty.
He worked in coal mines in Newchapel and Norton. He was a self-taught accordionist and played in pubs, despite being teetotal, to earn extra money. Upon leaving the mines he worked at a chemical works in Milton before building himself Barbers Palace, Tunstall, the town's first cinema. He was Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent 1929-1930.