Thomas Barber, from Daventry in Northamptonshire, was the son of Herbert and Thura Barber (née Humphries). After leaving school he joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker.

He later joined submarines and by August 1943 he was a Stoker Petty Officer serving in HMS SARACEN in the Mediterranean. On 14 August 1943, SARACEN was forced to surface north-east of Bastia on the island of Corsica after a depth charge attack by the Italian corvettes Minerva and Euterpe. The crew of SARACEN abandoned ship and the submarine was scuttled.

The crew, including Thomas Barber, were taken as a Prisoners of War in Italy. After the Italian armistice, Thomas Barber was transferred to German Army control and was being transported, along with others, on a train from Italy to a POW Camp in Germany. The train was bombed by Allied aircraft on 26 January 1944, and he was not seen alive again.

Thomas Barber was the husband of Rachael May Barber (née Hall), and he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial on Panel 83.