Might this 'Barber' have been aviation (and aircraft insurance policy) pioneer, Horatio C. Barber?
Prior to joining the RFC, H. C. Barber had been a bit of a con man, trying on various schemes throughout Canada and the US. By 1919, Capt. Barber had left the RAF and was representing the Aviation Insurance Association of London while acting as an underwriter at Lloyd's. In 1922, Barber went to New York where he formed Barber and Baldwin, Inc. - " the first underwriting agency in the USA to specialise in aircraft insurance". Acting as agents to the US Life Insurance Company, Barber and Baldwin was part of the Independence Companies of Philadelphia. [1]
Is it possible that, in 1926-27, Horatio Barber was trying it on again as a potential distributor of British aircraft in the US? Obviously, that didn't pan out. Within a year, Barber was back in the insurance game, forming Aero Underwriters Corporation in 1928 (offering shares on US and Canadian stock exchanges).
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[1] At this time, Barber and Baldwin held a near monopoly of on aviation insurance - acting as aviation underwriters for that Philadelphia firm's Independence Insurance Company and Independence Indemnity Company. For aviation-related life insurance, Barber and Baldwin also represented North American Co. (North American Accident Insurance) and the Lincoln Life Insurance Co.
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Sources
British Aviation - Projects to Production:
Horatio Claude Barber (1875 - 1964)
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http://www.britishaviation-ptp.com/hc_barber.html
Sovereign Skies: The Origins of American Civil Aviation Policy, Sean Seyer, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2021, pp 140 & 265
Aero Digest; May 1928
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https://archive.org/stream/aerodigest1213unse/aerodigest1213unse_djvu.txt
Reed Chambers - The Rise of an Aviation Entrepreneur, PhD dissertation by Lt-Col Matthew C. Stafford, USAF, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, May 2003
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https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA414393.pdf
