Engineer. Born in Paisley, Barr was educated at the University of Glasgow. He was appointed Professor of Engineering at the Yorkshire College of Science in Leeds in 1888. With the Professor of Physics, William Stroud, he formed Barr & Stroud, a firm manufacturing scientific instruments, including range finders for the navy and army.
Barr returned to the University of Glasgow to take the Chair of Civil Engineering in 1889. During his tenure in this position, he did much to develop engineering in Glasgow. Following his retiral from the University in 1913, he was able to devote his energies to Barr & Stroud which, by that time, was well-established in Glasgow. With the First World War, the company diversified to produce other optical instruments, such as binoculars, gun sights and submarine periscopes.
