BARRIE, Charles Gordon

One of the mysteries of Charles Gordon Barrie's life is where exactly he lived. His address was certainly 122 Victoria Street, where he lived with his father, Thomas Barrie, but was the suburb East Brunswick, which he wrote on his Attestation paper, or North Melbourne, on part of his record, or East Melbourne, which was the address he gave later? He was just a month short of nineteen years old when he enlisted on 1 April 1916. He worked as a carpenter, was 5' 7" tall, with blue eyes and brown hair. Unsurprisingly, he was single. he have his religion as Presbyterian. He had served four years with the Citizen Forces, and wrote on his form, that he had left them in order to enlist. It was the second time he had tried to join ther war effort, his earlier Attestation form having been lost.

This may have been the reason why he embarked so quickly, barely a month after he joined the AIF. He was initially placed in the Reserve Company at Broadmeadows, but on 4 May, emabarked to join the war effot on board the HS Golden Eagle, built as a ferry in 1909,  by the General Steam Navigation Company, Britian, and used as a depot ship in both wars. 

By August 1916, Charles Barry was at Tel el Kabir in Egypt, and was awarded Field Punishment No. 2 for absconding from duty without leave for two hours, from 5-7am. Then on 21 August, he marched in to join the 1st Training Battalion to prepare for the battles of the Western Front. On 11 November, he was attached to the 60th Battalion and sailed, again on the Golden Eagle, disembarking at Marseilles, France. By 14 January, he was serving in the field with the 60th Battalion, but on 21 February, was sent back to hospital at Reading England, suffering from fever and diarrhoea. He does not seem to have returned to France until September, 1917, when he leaves England to return to France, marching in on 19 September and re-joining  the 60th Battalion on 22 September. The Battalion was fighting on the Western Front, at Corbie and Villers-Brettoneux.

At some stage, Charles Barrie was removed from the 60th battalion and joined the 59th. He continued with them until war's end.  From France, they were sent to Codford, England, then sent back to Australia on board the Leicestershire, disembarking at Melbourne on 21 June 1919. Charles Barrie was discharged from service on 5 August, 1919.

He died at Coburg, Victoria, in 1961.