Mr George Barlow was born in Salford, Lancashire, England on 4 May 1872 and later baptised on 13 July that same year.

He was the son of George Barlow (b. 1851), a railway clerk, and Harriet Cooper (b. 1851). His parents, both Manchester natives, had married in 1871. Their first child, Lilly Elizabeth had been born in 1870 (born as Lilly Elizabeth Cooper, later Mrs Charles Hedley) followed by George in 1872 and Annie in 1874.

George's mother died in 1876 aged 25 and his father was remarried in 1877 to Emily Jane Cropley (1849-1941), a native of Spalding, Lincolnshire. He garnered a total of six half-siblings, of whom the following are known: Harry (b. 1879), Jessie (b. 1883), William (b. 1887), Margaret (b. 1891) and Florence (b. 1895).

The family appear together on the 1881 census living at 35 Moulton Street, Hulme, Lancashire and later appearing on the 1891 census at 112 Warde Street, Hulme when George was described as a packer of cotton goods. George was still described as a goods packer when he appeared on the 1901 census, then living at 36 Glebe Street, south Manchester, the home of his married sister Lilly Hedley and her family. He would be absent from the 1911 census but his father and stepmother were living at 21 Raby Street, Moss Side, Manchester at the time and his father was still working as a railway clerk.

According to a 1912 newspaper report George had been working for the White Star Line for around 12 years, mainly on the Oceanic, but latterly on the Olympic, and was aboard that vessel when it collided with H.M.S.Hawke, the experience clearly unnerved him and he became, according to his father,  convinced the Olympic would eventually go down.

He signed-on to the Titanic on 4 April 1912 and gave his local address as Carminster on Foundry Lane in Southampton. His previous ship had been the Olympic and as a bedroom steward he received monthly wages of £3, 15s.  He had a brother in a similar position on board the Baltic.

George Barlow died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

For several years Barlow's family and friends placed memorials in their local newspaper, the Manchester Evening News; these two are from that paper, dated 16 April 1917:

BARLOW--In ever loving memory of our dear son, GEORGE, who lost his life on the Titanic, April 15th, 1912. Dearly loved beyond words

Beneath the roll of soundless waves
Our best and loved one lies;
Give us to feel his spirit lives
Immortal in the sky.

Father, mother, Jessie, Florrie

BARLOW--In loving memory of our dear friend, GEORGE, who went down in the Titanic, April 15th, 1912.
Asleep in the deep
God rest the great Titanic's noble dead.

AGNES and (Dick in France)