Five Sons Serving: A Mother’s Sorrow

5 Star Female Relative Badge

 

“How brave she was letting five sons go off to war!” my cousin Fiona said. And our Nana Barrett was brave but as I discovered, many things were completely beyond her control.

Florence May Barrett A157977
Recipient of Female Relative Badge World War II

We had heard the story from my mother that Dad wanted to enlist when he was 17 but Nana put her foot down and forbade it. “I’ve already got four boys in this war. You’re not going.” But when Dad returned home from work on his 18^th birthday there was the letter waiting for him on the dining room table instructing him to report for duty. It must have broken Nana’s heart. Nana had seven boys and one girl and by December 1942 all the boys over 18 were serving in the armed forces. One had volunteered and four had been conscripted. Two years later it was only the occupation in essential services of her sixth son that saved him from having to enlist. And the seventh son was still only 17. How could a country ask so much from one family?

The Barrett boys serving overseas L to R: Jack b1913,
Gordon b1916,Rowley b1914, Stan b1920 and Dudley b1924

At the outbreak of the war Australia's military forces were seriously depleted. Australia's regular army comprised only 3,000 men.

On 20 October 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced the reintroduction of compulsory military training with effect from 1 January 1940. The arrangements required unmarried men turning 21 to undertake three months’ training with the Citizen Military Forces (CMF).

 

In November 1939 Menzies announced that the existing reserve force, the CMF (or Militia), would be bolstered by conscription. However the CMF would not be required to fight beyond Australia and its territories, which did include Papua and New Guinea.

 

At the same time, the government raised a new volunteer army for service overseas. This was the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

 

It was the result of a concerted recruitment campaign, though with unemployment being so high the government had little trouble filling the ranks.

Leading Aircraftsman Rowley
David Winsall Barrett VQ25055

Rowley was the first of the Barrett boys to enlist in the armed forces. Like many of the men after the Depression he was unemployed. He had been working for his father as a bookmaker’s clerk and helping his father with training the horses but although he had done well at school he had failed to find a secure job. He had seen the persuasive ads for the Air Force and also wanting to ‘do his duty’ applied to join the Air Force on 30 April 1940.

Rowley served with No. 3 Squadron in the Middle East.

 

Private Stanley Leslie Barrett
QX55575

At the start of World War II in 1939 all unmarried men aged 21 were to be called up for three months' military training and Stan completed two lots of training at camps in Yeppoon in September 1940 and again in March 1941.

 

Stan was then called up for full time duty with the CMF on 17 December 1941.

Volunteers with the AIF initially scorned CMF conscripts as "chocolate soldiers", or "chockos", because they were believed to melt under the conditions of battle. However several CMF Militia units fought under difficult conditions, suffered extremely high casualties in 1942 and distinguished themselves by slowing the Japanese advance on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea. In an effort to bolster the ranks of those able to fight overseas, government policy changed to allow the transfer of many of the CMF conscripts to the AIF.

 

Stan disembarked in Milne Bay on 22 March 1943 and during his time in New Guinea was transferred to the AIF on 9 July 1943. Stan served with the 42^nd Battalion. He served in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Corporal Gordon Vivian Barrett
QX33639

During 1940 Gordon completed his three months compulsory training with the 11 Field Ambulance. He was subsequently called up for full time duty enlisting on 21 January 1941 and transferring to the 10 Fortress Company. He was then transferred from the CMF to the AIF on 30 July 1942.

 

Gordon served as a nursing orderly with the Army Medical Corps on Thursday Island.

Corporal John Edwin Fitzroy Barrett
QX55352

Jack joined the Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) on 19 May 1941 and was promoted to Sergeant. He was conscripted into the CMF on 23 May 1942 with the rank of Private and embarked for New Guinea with the 57/60 Battalion on 16 May 1943. He was later transferred to the AIF on 6 July 1943 and promoted to Corporal.

When scrub typhus nearly took his life in May 1944 Jack was repatriated back to Australia where he was transferred to the military police.

Private Dudley Alan Barrett
Q267610

By mid-1942 all men aged 18–35 and single men aged 35–45 were required to join the CMF.

Dudley (my Dad) was conscripted on his 18^th birthday and ordered to report for duty. On 18 December 1942 he enlisted in the Australian Military Forces (AMF) and was assigned to the 133 Brigade Workshops.

Dad worked as an armourer and served in New Guinea.

At the end of August 1943 a parcel arrived for Nana from the Queensland Lines of Communication Area Records Office containing a 4 Star Female Relative Badge and a form for my Nana to sign and return for receipt of the badge. This form is attached to Gordon’s war record.

Then in the following year the replacement badge with 5 stars arrived acknowledging the fifth son. This letter (below) is attached to Dudley’s war record.

Letter attached to Dudley Barrett's war record accompanying the 5 Star Badge

When asked how Nana coped with her boys fighting overseas my Uncle Ken describes his mother as a stoic. “She was brave in how she handled it all.” He also told of the close bond that developed over this time between his mother and her daughter Gloria who was her constant support.

Fate smiled on my Nana and all of her five sons returned, at least visibly unscathed, in dribs and drabs from the awful conflict.

Gordon was the first to return in January 1944, a few months before his younger brother Dudley disembarked in Lae to begin his tour of duty overseas. Rowley was discharged in October 1945 and then his brother Jack the month after that. Young single men were the last to be discharged with Stan arriving home in April 1946 and finally Dudley in September of the same year.

Female Relative Badges were issued to the nearest female relative of those on active service overseas during the First and Second World Wars. They were worn by the wives, mothers, or the nearest female relatives of service personnel. The stars represented the number of relatives involved in the war effort.

One of my cousins is the family custodian of our Nana’s 5 Star Badge and has had it framed with photos of Nana and her five boys who went to war. It was seeing this beautifully framed picture recently that gave me the impetus to write this story.

Florence May Barrett with her five sons and her 5 Star Badge.
Photo courtesy of my cousin

Acknowledgements:

A big thankyou to my Uncle Ken Barrett who gave me an understanding of the family logistics, the dynamics of what was happening in the family and the local history of the time.

And to my brother-in-law Peter Allen who is my guiding light on all things military my continuing gratitude.

Thanks also to my cousin for preserving the 5 Star Badge and giving it pride of place for future generations to see.

References:

Female Relative Badge | Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Australia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Military_Forces#:~:text=The%20Australian%20Military%20Forces%20(AMF,Citizen%20Military%20Force%20(ACMF) 

Jack Barrett's Will: How the Thackerays got the Barrett money

John Barrett 1849-1923
reproduced with permission
©B Bywater

Growing up we knew a lot about our Nana’s side of the family. We knew her sisters and their families. There were photos. We heard lots of family stories. But when I came to think of it I hadn’t met any of my grandfather’s family. I hadn’t seen any photos, heard any names or any stories. I didn’t even know how many brothers or sisters he had.

Midgee property with cemetery now in the middle of a quarry

The one thing I did remember was Midgee. Whenever we were driving south out of Rockhampton past Midgee Dad would point out the property where his father had grown up. And he would point to the family grave where Grandad’s little sister was buried up on the hill. She had died in a fire.

When I started the family history 30 years ago I asked many questions of the family to try to unravel the story of Midgee and our Barretts.

I heard that Grandad’s father used to whip the boys if the cattle got out and that my grandfather ran away from home as a teenager. I also heard that Grandad’s mother left his father as soon as the children grew up. I heard that Grandad’s father married the housekeeper Nina Thackeray after his wife died. And I heard that the Thackerays ‘got all the money’.

Grandad’s father was John Barrett who had come to Australia from Manchester England as an 14 year old with his parents Benjamin and Mary Ann and his three sisters and two brothers on the ship Hannah More arriving at Keppel Bay in 12 October 1863.

John ‘Jack’ Barrett at 17 years of age married Ellen Scully in 1866 in Rockhampton. Ellen had arrived with her sisters Bridget and Honora on the ship Landsborough also at Keppel Bay in 23 January 1865.

Jack and Ellen had 10 children: Joseph, Mary Ann ‘Polly’, Catherine ‘Kate’, Elizabeth, Edith ‘Eda’, Nora, John ‘Jack’, Ellen or Helen ‘Nell’, Sarah and Margaret. Poor little Margaret was the toddler who was only 15 months old when she died in the fire and was buried in the family graveyard up on the hill at Midgee.

John and Nina Barrett South Rockhampton cemetery

As we all do when we start our family history I looked for the graves. I found the graves in the South Rockhampton cemetery. My great-grandfather was buried with Nina, his second wife, in the Anglican section and my great-grandmother was buried with two of her daughters Elizabeth and Edith who had predeceased her, in the Catholic section, almost as an afterthought it seemed with her inscription on the side of Edith’s headstone.

Ellen Barrett nee Scully
South Rockhampton cemetery

Death certificate of John Barrett 

When I received John Barrett's death certificate the first surprise I got was that my grandfather J. F. Barrett was the informant. Somehow I had formed the impression that he had fled his father never to return. But that clearly wasn’t so. He must have reconnected with his father and Nina at some stage.

So off to Queensland State Archives I went and found the will and probate details.

The will was three pages long, quite detailed and clearly not a simple matter of gifting everything to his second wife Nina.

 

The estate was divided up in the following manner:

·       Nina (wife)
o   “Midgee Cottage” in Kent Street
o   North Street property
o   store on the corner of Archer and West Streets
o   £300
o   War Peace bonds £850
o   life estate over “Fariview” including contents in Cambridge and Talford Street

·       John Stanley Burns (grandson)
o   “Fairview” on the death of Nina
o   “Roundbay” in Cambridge Street

·       Thomas Howard Burns (grandson)
o   Two properties in Oxford Road

·       James Patrick Burns (grandson)
o   £420 owing on West Street property
o   West Street house and land

·       John Fitzroy Barrett (son)
o   “Kensington” in George Street

·       Mary Portus (daughter) 
o   House and land Talford and Archer Streets

·       Sarah Barrett (daughter) £200

Probate application p1

·       John Edwin Fitzroy Barrett, Rowley David Winsall Barrett and Gordon Vivian Barrett (grandsons) £100 each

·       Ellen Pearson (sister) £100

·       Nora Burns (daughter) Approx. £1,100 rest and residue of the estate

The executors of the will were Henry Barrett, son of his brother Benjamin, and Benjamin John Adams, son of his sister Sarah Adams.

The will was signed 10 weeks before his death.

(To put the gifts into some perspective, in 1922 the minimum wage was £4.10.0)

Probate application p2

Jack Barrett's will summary showing all grandchildren alive at the time of the signing of the will

Some of Jack Barrett’s children and grandchildren would have become quite wealthy as a result of this will and some missed out completely.

What was his thinking in drawing up this will? Why was there no provision for two of his daughters? Did he think they were well catered for by their husbands? Had they sided with their mother and cut him out of their lives? Why did he cut out one of his two sons? Why was the provision for most of his grandchildren so disproportionate to what others received?

It would appear that some were in favour and others completely out of favour. On the face of it, it certainly paints a picture of a fractured family.

While it isn’t completely accurate to say that the Thackerays ‘got all the money’ it must have been galling for his children and grandchildren when some 20 years later Nina’s large portion of the Barrett estate passed to unrelated people, particularly when five of the nine children, or their offspring, were disinherited.