Barnes , Leonard John , 1895-1977 , author and journalist

Leonard John Barnes was born in London on 21 July 1895. He was educated at St. Paul's School in Hammersmith and served in the First World War in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He was wounded three times and awarded the Military Cross with bar. In 1919 he went to University College, Oxford. Following the completion of his degree he entered the Colonial Office for a short time. He then went to South Africa, where he worked as a farmer, and later as a journalist in Cape Town. He returned to England in 1932 and wrote The New Boer War documenting his experiences overseas. Barnes concentrated on his writing on colonial and development issues until in 1936 he was appointed lecturer in education at the University of Liverpool. In 1943 he married Margaret (Peggy). Barnes was a member of the Carr-Saunders Commission to Malaya in the late 1940s to enquire into education provision and the foundation of a university. In 1947 the Barneses moved to Oxford following his appointment as Secretary and Director of the Delegacy for Social Training in Oxford University (later the Department of Social and Administrative Studies). Barnes stayed at Oxford until his retirement in 1962.

Following his retirement, he visited Central and East Africa several times under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission. He was employed as a consultant to examine how African countries were coping with modernisation and sociological problems. In 1973 he was invited by Kenneth Kaunda to report on Zambia's political and economic problems, resulting in Zambia 1973: Comment and Appraisal. He was a prolific writer, publishing a large number of books on the situation in Africa, educational problems, the Empire and the Commonwealth. He also wrote poetry and biographical material. He died on 10 March 1977.