Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The family of Hugh Sunderland Barrett and Sarah Morriss settled in Ballarat during 1888.  Hugh Barrett had already established a reputation as a criminal lawyer who was considered one of the finest in the State and he boasted that he had never lost a murder case. Sarah and Hugh’s youngest child, Rupert Sunderland Barrett, had been born at Dunolly on 17 May 1882, where Hugh Barrett had a thriving legal practice.

Young Rupert looked certain to follow in his father’s footsteps.  His early education was undertaken at Ballarat College, an institution with an impressive reputation.   

Rupert also showed outstanding athletic ability. He played with the South Ballarat Football Club, one of the most successful teams of the pre-war era. Rupert successfully gained admission to Ormond College at the University of Melbourne in early 1907 to begin studying law. After three years study, he decided to quit his law course completely.  One source stated that he preferred the ‘outdoor life.’  However, another suggestion was that it for ‘health reasons’ that he went to work on the Lightwood Park Estate of Mr Charles Walker, near Carngham. 

When war broke out, Rupert was working as a station overseer for the leading pastoralist, Gordon Chirnside, on the historically significant Carranballac Estate at Skipton.

Rupert became firm friends with two fellow officers – Gus Eberling, a farmer from Avoca, and William Yates, a dairyman from Camperdown. 

Yates wrote a letter home, “…..at about 5pm on the day of the Landing, a few stragglers of our men were noticed to be running in towards us and the order was given not to fire.  They proved to be the remnants of No. 12 Platoon "C" Company, who, under Lieut. Rupert Barrett, had run right into the enemy's main position, and were met by a hail of bullets. The first volley killed Lieutenant Barrett and several men, and wounded a number of others, and all those who could get back to cover did so at once…”

Sergeant Frank Pollock from Ballarat gave a detailed description of the events of that morning and the fate of Rupert Barrett. ‘…shortly after midday we were occupying a ridge about two and a half miles in, and were under very heavy fire from rifles, machine-guns, and shrapnel.  We could do very little, as they were well entrenched and concealed among the bushes on a plateau a few hundred yards ahead.  We got the word for a party to rush ahead and try to root them out. 

About 60 of us under Lt Barrett went forward in one batch, and suffered pretty badly.  When we got there, we could see nothing.  It was very thick scrub, and under heavy fire all the time.  We were moving forward from one cover to another, and as soon as you made a rush behind a bush it would get peppered with shots.  The enemy were using explosive bullets, and as they struck the ground or a twig or branch they would go off like a big cracker.  It was at this point, about the furthest the Australians got that day, that I saw Bob Todd and Fred Gribble.  They were both alright then, but Bob told me he had had some narrow shaves.  One bullet passed through his haversack, going through a tin of bully beef. 

We were doing no good, and all ‘round fellows were singing out that they were hit.  Lt Barrett had just given the order to retire when he gave a shout and said he was hit.  I happened to be near him, and you could easily see that he was nearly done.  Two or three of his own company stopped with him. 

When we got behind the next ridge Bob and Fred were missing.  Someone told me that Lt Barrett was nearly gone, and that Fred Gribble had stopped with him.  I thought it was all up with Fred, for half an hour later the Turks were on the ground we had left.  Fred, however, quietly turned up on the Monday morning.  He had stayed with Lt Barrett until the end, and had a marvellous escape to get back…’ 

As the Australians pushed forward in the ensuing days, it became possible for Rupert’s body to be retrieved for burial.  The site was marked as being near the bottom of Victoria Gully, on the north side and about 1100 yards south-east of ANZAC Cove. 

The death of the popular young officer had a profound effect on those closest to him.  The simple fact that Fred Gribble, a familiar face from home, refused to leave Rupert to die alone, was testament to how deeply they all felt.

When the commander of the 8th Battalion, William Bolton, wrote home to his wife, he paid tribute to several Ballarat officers – including Rupert Barrett – who fell during the early days of the campaign.  After touching on the losses during the Landing, Lieutenant-Colonel Bolton iterated something that should resonate with us all on ANZAC Day,

‘…We were all greatly cut up about the death of poor Rupert Barrett, who was a fine soldier, first and foremost wherever there was most danger. The men simply adored him. I came to love that young man; he was so kind and courteous, even in small things. Ah, me. how many kindly hearts have been stilled forever?....

Bolton, himself, was too deeply affected by what he witnessed to continue in the frontline.  At nearly 55 years of age, he was not young by the standards of 1915.  He returned to Australia a changed man, but he held true to his commitment to his men and quietly poured his efforts into the care of returned men.  He was a founder of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League (forerunner of the RSL), and became its first national president on 3 June 1916. 

In 1919, the remaining members of the Barrett family were notified that Rupert’s body was to be exhumed from its original burial site and re-buried in the Brown’s Dip Cemetery. 

Then, in April 1923, in what must have seemed like a painfully never-ending saga, Rupert’s remains were once again exhumed and placed in the Lone Pine Cemetery, 1⅜ miles south-east of ANZAC Cove.  The reason given was that torrential seasonal rains over the Brown’s Dip Cemetery had badly affected the graves, which were in danger of obliteration.

Information edited from "Ballarat and District in the Great War."