Lindsey Lyle (Len) BARNETT

Badge Number: 55999, Sub Branch: Ceduna
55999

BARNETT, Lindsey Lyle

Service Number: 231
Enlisted: 15 March 1916, Adelaide, South Australia
Last Rank: Sergeant
Last Unit: 5th Machine Gun Battalion
Born: Nailsworth, South Australia, 11 November 1893
Home Town: Laura Bay, Ceduna, South Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Farm labourer
Died: Natural causes, Adelaide, South Australia, 27 February 1972, aged 78 years
Cemetery: Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia
Memorials: Ceduna Merghiny Maltee & Waranda Pictorial Roll of Honor
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World War 1 Service

15 Mar 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 231, Adelaide, South Australia
4 May 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 231, 8th Machine Gun Company, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Lincoln embarkation_ship_number: A17 public_note: ''
4 May 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 231, 8th Machine Gun Company, HMAT Port Lincoln, Melbourne
10 Aug 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Sergeant, 231, 5th Machine Gun Battalion

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Biography contributed by Sandra Mahney

Lindsey Lyle Barnett was known as "Len" and was born at Nailsworth, S.A., on 11 Nov 1893, the 6th of 9 children who were born to Thomas and Eliza.

When the Great War broke out in 1914 he was 21 years of age and he enlisted in the A.I.F. joining the 8th Machine Gun Company and embarked for service abroad on 04 May 1916 aboard HMAT Port Lincoln, deaprting out of Melbourne, Victoria.

Len spent time in Egypt, England and ultimately the Western Front. He did not talk about his war time experiences other than to say "the mud, oh the mud"

He met his wife Doris when he was home on leave. They  married on 21/10/1922. They had 5 children and moved to Ceduna on the West Coast of SA where Len took up a soldier settlement property.

Times were hard, he was one of the early settlers in this part of SA, and eventually, lack of rain and the depression forced him from the land.

The family stayed in the area and moved to Laura Bay where Len built the family home. He worked on the wharves at Thevenard lumping bags of wheat as well as doing other labouring work.

Around 1940, the family moved to Adelaide, where they bought a home at 9 Mathias Avenue, Cumberland Park.  

Len re-enlisted in the army in the 2nd world war, this time spending the duration of the war at the Keswick Barracks in Adelaide.

Tragedy struck for the family on 12/1/53, when their beloved youngest son Norman, aged only 19 years of age was killed in a cycling accident. 

Len and Doris, stayed in their home at Cumberland Park, until Len's passing on 27/2/1972. He died at the Repatriation Hospital Daw Park.

I am Len and Doris's eldest grandchild, one of 11.  My memory is of a kind, gentle man, with a strong Christian faith and a great love of family.

He did his duty when his country called, I am so proud to be able to call Lindsey Lyle Barnett my grandfather.

Sandra Mahney (Barnett)

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