ANZAC Newsletter - RAAMC Association

Eulogy for our Dad ~ Neil Barrie(23.7.1915-29.11.2012)(Presented by Robert and Irene)Neil was born in Brunswick on 23rdJuly 1915. He was the sixth of tenchildren (five boys and five girls) bornto Stanley and Florrie. Seven of Neil’ssiblings, Leslie, Linda, Alva, Madge,Keith, Douglas and Colin have predeceasedhim, while Norma and Valdaare unfortunately not well enough tobe here.Neil was from Brunswick, BarklyStreet. He was a painter and paper -hanger. There were 10 children andthey were known by extended family asThe Barries of Barkly Street. In 1924,when he was 9, he went to Princes HillPrimary School, North Carlton. Therewere about fifty kids in one room andpeople complain about the class sizesthese days! He was captain of the localcricket team. In 1930 he also played forthe Victorian State School team and weplayed in NSW and Queensland.As was usual in those days Neilcompleted the Merit Certificate at theend of Year 8 and then left to find work.Upon leaving school on December30th 1929 he received the followingreferenceThis is to certify that I have known thebearer, Neil Barrie, for the greater part ofhis school life and I have always foundhim to be quiet, truthful, honest andtrustworthy in the highest degree. He isvery popular with his companions and isa born leader.His health is perfectly sound. He isfond of healthy, athletic games. He hasgained the Merit Certificate and is steadyand capable. I have found him courteous,manly and obliging.It is a pleasure to be able to recom -mend such a fine honourable lad and hecarries with him my utmost confi denceand good wishes,Signed: Alfred Bock, Sports masterand Assistant, December 30th 1929.During the depression Neil tried hishand at goldmining with his mate, AlecOpperman. His brother was the famouscyclist, Hubert Opperman. “Their oldman was mad keen on goldmining andsleeper cutting. Goldmining ... we hadsome strange times there! When you’reblasting, you drill a hole and put thegelignite in and you use different fuses foreach one, so they go off at different timesand you need to count them ... but wedidn’t do any good out of our mining”!Neil’s brother, Les, married HubertOpperman’s sister.“In April 1940, at the age of 24, I washome and I was working at the BarklyBrick Company but I’d had quite a fewjobs before then. At the time, things werebad and they were asking for reinforce -ments and everyone was signing up.Menzies gave a speech, it was really acall for volunteers and so I joined up. Iwent to the Melbourne Town Hall and Ijust had to sign some papers. My motherand everyone at home was surprisedwhen I went back and told them I wasgoing to enlist.The first night, I slept in a horse stall atthe Caulfield Racecourse and it wasfreezing cold. You went through all thepaperwork there and then went on toPuckapunyal where we stayed untilOctober. We were all together on thetrain and when we got to the camp atPuckapunyal it was freezing. They hadhuts with about 20 men in each. In themorning, we were assigned a company. Itwas the 2/5th Field Ambulance, 7thDivision.I was in ‘A’ company. We had driversattached to us, learned first aid and howto carry people on stretchers and we hadcertain training in wounds.We finally left Australia on CaulfieldCup Eve, October 1940. We went on theMauritania before it was converted to atroop ship, and it was magnificent. Wewere in cabins and the food was beauti -ful. So it was from Caulfield to Pucka -punyal and then to Palestine! First timeI’d ever been out of Australia”.Below is an excerpt from a letter Iwrote to Joyce.“The flies are a little troublesome. TheSuez Canal is worth coming a thousandmiles to see but the train journey was theworst I’ve ever had. We have a picturetheatre here and all the latest pictures areshown”.“I kept all the letters we wrote backand forth.We were sent to Tobruk first for 7 or 8months and were there during the Siegeof Tobruk in 1941. We were down in a drycreek bed and that was where we builtour holes of stone and things, and half amile away there was a water point. In oneway it was good because you built yourhole in the bank of the riverbed. The holeswere big enough to sleep in.Neil Barrie (Courtesy “Herald Sun”)Three or four of us could get in andplay cards at night. We used to get atobacco tin from the cook filled with oiland use a bit of blanket as a wick. Weused to get in there and play cards withno light showing out. But when you wokeup in the morning and spat, it was likeblack coal!After Tobruk, we came back toAustralia in about March 1942. We weresent to Milne Bay to take part in the waragainst the Japanese. At Milne Bay, wewere helped in carrying the woundedduring the battle by the fuzzy wuzzyangels.After the battle of Milne Bay, some ofthe 2/5th was then sent to GoodenoughIsland and we spent a week there. Wewent on a destroyer, the Arunta. After thebattle, about eight fuzzy wuzzy angelscarried a wounded soldier from the2/10th with us through very heavy rain.He’d been shot in the face. My mate, EricBoys, and I were sleeping next to him totry and keep him warm and alive, and gethim back to base. It was freezing cold upthere on that mountain and we lay downon either side of him with groundsheetsover us, but he didn’t last. It was impos -sible for him to eat or drink; the poorbloke. He hung on till the very last andrefused to give in, but he died the nextmorning.After about a week or so on Good -enough Island, the navy came and tookus back to Milne Bay. They gave us baconand eggs on the ship, and it wasmarvellous! We were in Milne Bay untilthe battle was over and then we cameback to Australia in March 1943.When I enlisted I had a girlfriend,Joyce Skinner. She was a local BarklyStreet girl and we were just goingsteady before the war. I proposed andwhilst on leave, married her on 16 April,1943. A mate of mine had a house at3