British colonial administrator who played a major role in the establishment of responsible governments in Victoria (Australia) and Cape Colony (South Africa).

The son of a merchant, Barkly was a member of Parliament for Leominster from 1845 to 1848 and then served appointments as governor of British Guiana (1848–53), Jamaica (1853–56), Victoria (1856–63), Mauritius (1863–70), and Cape Colony (1870–77). In 1870 he was named high commissioner to settle a dispute among the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the chief of the West Griqua tribe over border territory lately discovered to be rich in diamonds. He found for the Griquas but proclaimed Griqualand West a crown dependency in 1871. He was knighted in 1853.