CAPTAIN KEITH JOY BARRETT
ROYAL FUSILIERS
16TH APRIL 1917 AGE 25
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Of such as he was, there be few on earth;
Of such as he is, there are few in Heaven:
And life is all the sweeter that he lived,
And all he loved more sacred for his sake:
And Death is all the brighter that he died,
And Heaven is all the happier that he's there.
Extract from In Memoriam
In affectionate remembrance of
John William Spencer, Earl Brownlow, died 1867
By Gerald Massey 1828-1905
Captain Barrett was an Australian who served in the British army. On 13 April 1917 during the Second Battle of Arras he was injured in the leg whilst leading his men at Guemappe. He carried on until he was hit in the face by a bullet, which shattered his jaw and pierced his tongue. Even this did not stop him to begin with, as a brother officer wrote in a letter to his parents:
"Unable to speak, he sat down and delivered his orders in writing; it was only after seeing that everything was in order that he left the scene of carnage."
Sent back to a base hospital in Etaples, he died there three days later. In 1921 his diaries were published as 'The Diary of an Australian Soldier'. A memoir written by Henry Gyles Turner, a friend of Keith's parents, can be read here