John Aubrey (Jack) BARRETT

John Aubrey (Jack) BARRETT Update Details

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BARRETT, John Aubrey

Service Number:	2897
Enlisted:	11 August 1915
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	17th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Kembla Heights, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, 29 April 1895
Home Town:	Cessnock, Cessnock, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Confectioner/Fruiterer
Died:	Waratah, New South Wales, Australia, 11 November 1945, aged 50 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Sandgate General Cemetery, Newcastle, NSW Grave No. 170-5 Buried by RSL
Memorials:

11 Aug 1915:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2897, 14th Machine Gun Company
2 Nov 1915:	Involvement Private, 2897, 17th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
2 Nov 1915:	Embarked Private, 2897, 17th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
2 Nov 1915:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2897, Sailed to Egypt
1 Jul 1916:	Wounded Private, Wounded in France
24 Dec 1916:	Involvement Private, 2897, Resumed Duty

Biography contributed by Evan Evans

From Gary Mitchell, Sandgate Cemetery

Served and suffered during The Great War, now resting at Sandgate Cemetery, not forgotten.

76 years ago today, on the Tuesday afternoon of the 13th November 1945, Private John (Jack) Aubrey Barrett, 5th Australian Machine Gun Battalion (Reg No-2897), confectioner (Walker's Model Bakery) from Crown Street, Wollongong, New South Wales and Chilcott Street, Lambton, N.S.W. and 1 Ellis Road, Waratah, N.S.W., father of two, was laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery, age 50. ANGLICAN 3-170. 57.

Born at Mount Kembla, New South Wales on the 29th April 1895 to John Patrick and Catherine Barrett (died 1916) nee McNamee; husband of Mary Barrett nee Middlemas (married 1920, Cessnock, N.S.W., died 1979, sleeping here), Jack enlisted August 1915 with the 17th Battalion at Holsworthy, N.S.W.

Wounded in action - 20.7.1916, (GSW or SW right arm, elbow, mild, Battle of Fromelles).

Mr. Barrett’s name has been inscribed on the Wollongong War Memorial Arch (photos, unveiled on the 3rd June 1923) and The Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V.C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V.C.) Memorial Wall.

Many thanks to Mr. Barrett's Granddaughter Suzanne Stroud for the photos and family history.

John Aubrey Barrett was born in Kembla Heights, Wollongong, N.S.W. on the 29/4/1895 to John Patrick Barrett and Catherine McNamee, who had emigrated from Ballingarry, Tipperary, Ireland in the 1870s.
John enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on the 11/8/1915 and was placed with the 14th Machine Gun Company. He sailed to Egypt on the 2/11/1915 and was gassed and wounded in the right arm in France on the 19/7/1916.

He was dispatched to England for hospitalisation and resumed duty on the 24/12/1916. He was never to regain the use of his right arm.

On his return to Australia on the 1/8/1918 his family had moved to Cessnock, N.S.W., where he set up a shop as a confectioner/fruiterer.

There he met Mary Middlemas, and they subsequently married on the 2/10/1920.

They moved to Lambton and raised their family of two children, then to Waratah, where they were living when he passed away from complications of the War, aged 49.

John worked at the BHP in the coke ovens for many years, which would have been no mean feat with only one useful arm.

There is no indication inscribed on Jack’s headstone of his service with the 1st A.I.F., so I have placed poppies and a 1914-1918 WAR label in remembrance of his sacrifice for God, King & Country.

Service record states Died after Discharge, 11/11/1945.

Plaque in New South Wales Garden of Remembrance.
Lest We Forget.

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia