BARRY, Archibald John

Archibald Barry was born at Richmond on 30 September 1879.

He enlisted at Melbourne on 21 May 1917. He was 37 years old, 5'7'', and listed his occupation as Manager. He had married Ethel May Bell in 1906. He was allocated to the 58th Batt 9th reinforcements.

He spent several weeks at the Broadmeadows Camp training before embarking ex Sydney on the HMT Port Melbourne [A16] on 16 July 1917, disembarking at Liverpool on 16 September 1917.

He proceeded to France and was wounded in action on 3 September 1918 with a gun shot wound to his right arm. Barry returned to England and spent the next months in various hospitals before being returned to Australia on HS Ascanius on 9 Feb 1919.

Stealth Raiders, a book by Lucas Jordan published in 2017, details the development of a tactic of clandestine raids on enemy lines by Australian troops, initiated without the approval of senior command. According to Jordan, this occurred in the Amiens sector from early to mid 1918, and formed a model for its use more widely by Allied forces. The tactic was initiated by front line troops to achieve small focussed objectives through surprise attacks on German outposts, using small numbers of troops and often in daylight hours. These raids had the purpose of occupying German trench positions and machine gun posts where possible, with minimum casualties. This was in contrast to the larger scale set piece attacks preceded by an artillery barrage, which attacks usually incurred heavy casualties.

Jordan in his book (p.42) mentions one such raid at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918 conducted by a corporal and four privates of the 58th Batt, including Archibald Barry; the raid was in daylight, and they killed a number of soldiers, took two prisoners, and captured maps and a diary. 

The extracted document below refers to Barry being "congratulated for gallantry" on 3 July 1918, and his record says that this was for "his gallantry and courage when acting as a runner under very heavy shell, machine gun and rifle fire on the night of 3/4 July 1918". 

His service record has correspondence in 1919 from 19 Anita Street, Beaumaris. In the electoral rolls, he goes from a manager at Anita Street, Beaumaris, in 1921 to a farmer at Tarwin in 1922, to a farmer at Jeetho in 1924 and a labourer at Cranbourne Road, Dandenong, to a labourer at Anita Street until 1927 when he moved to 257 Heidelberg Road, Alphington, occupation labourer. He then went back to Anita Street, with a short period in the mid 1930s at 17 Pridham Street, Armadale. 

He died aged 62 on 18 July 1942 at the Alfred Hospital survived by his wife Ethel May, daughter and three sons. He had been living at 19 Anita Street, Beaumaris at the time of his death.