Teacher, painter and draughtsman, born in Newnham, Gloucestershire. Little is known of her early life or training, and she appears to have been largely self-taught. Her father died when she was young and, now living in Broadstairs, Kent, she supported the family by teaching in schools. At Queen Bertha’s School, Birchington, she and the pupils made a mural of the landing of Queen Bertha. John Craxton, taught by her at Betteshanger School, Eastry, in the early 1930s, called her “an inspired teacher”. Pupils’ work was shown at Bloomsbury Gallery in 1933 opened by Slade principal Henry Tonks, to national press acclaim. The main influence on Barling was Frances Hodgkins, whom she met at her class at Burford in 1923 and with whom she painted abroad.