 |
Born in West Drayton, 4th July 1940, Barry attended Beaumont School in St Albans before moving on to Watford Technical High School. After leaving school he served as an apprentice Electronic Engineer and then joined English Electric in Luton.
He cut his footballing teeth with Watford Schoolboys before spending three years with the highly respected St Albans-based youth team Carlton. Whilst with Carlton he was selected for the Hertfordshire Youth team and made his debut for the City Reserves on 3rd May 1957. The City side that day included a number of Carlton players as the Saints, bottom of the Isthmian League Reserve Section, held champions Wycombe Wanderers to a goalless draw at Clarence Park.
Over the next three years Barrie played 20 times for the City Reserves and on 4th January 1958 he made his debut for First team during a 5-2 Isthmian League defeat at Ilford. The match report was impressed with the strength of his tackling that day, Barrie was just 17 at the time, but felt that he was probably a year away from being ready for senior football. Given what was to follow the reporter got it spot on.
And it was also against Ilford in the October of the following year ? St Albans won 4-1 at Newbury Park ? that Barrie returned to the City First team and became pretty much a permanent fixture until the end of the 1962-63 season. Ilford continued to feature in the early days of his First team career as he suffered a broken collar-bone in the return fixture at Clarence Park; it was an injury that kept him out of the side for just under two months. Ilford featured more favourably on Boxing Day 1959 when he struck twice ? his first goals for the City ? as the Essex side were thrashed 6-0 at Clarence Park. Surprisingly, for player who featured at either right-half or left-half, these were the only league goals that he scored for the Saints. He did, though, chip in with five cup goals.
Unfortunately the Club did not win any honours during his 162 appearances but Barries personal fortunes were highly successful and blossoming throughout his time at the Park.
The 1960-61 season saw Barrie top the appearances chart, as he appeared in 38 of Citys 42 games. This season also saw him sign amateur forms for Tottenham Hotspur, with whom he remained registered until the end of the following season.
In 1961-62 he was Citys only ever present player in the Isthmian League. On 6th December he gained his first taste of international football when he appeared for an FA Amateur XI that beat the Royal Navy 7-3 at Portsmouth. He ended the season by teaming up with the Middlesex Wanderers for their tour of Uganda, Kenya and Mauritius in June. The Wanderers played seven games of which Barrie featured in six. Going on the tour did Barries international prospects no harm as the 17-man party included six Amateur England internationals and two Amateur Scottish internationals.
Barrie missed Citys opening league fixture of the 1962-63 season due to being selected to play for the Isthmian League Representative side against champions Wimbledon at Plough Lane. And in September 1962 he was back in the company of the internationals as, on the 10th, he played in an England Amateur XI that defeated Guildford City 1-0 in Surrey. Barrie almost missed that match though as the invitation to play was originally sent to his old address in Luton, rather than his home in St Albans. He finally received the invitation only on the morning of the match.
Scotland v England 1963 Barries performance persuaded the selectors to give him first full cap six days later as England drew 2-2 with Eire in Dublin. Before the month was out, on the 29th, he played his first international on home soil as England beat Northern Ireland 3-2 at Champion Hill, Dulwich. Having played at right-half in Dublin he was switched to left-half for the game at Dulwich.
What was quite a remarkable year in his life saw Barrie back on his travels almost immediately after his second international, as he joined the Isthmian League Representative squad for a three match tour of Uganda. Games were played against Kenya, Ghana and Buganda on 1st, 7th and 8th October and drawn 3-3, 2-2 and 1-1 respectively.
The season was not a particularly memorable one for St Albans but Barries star continued to rise. His next international duty came on 17th November when he missed Citys 5-2 win over Oxford City to be an unused Reserve for Englands 3-2 win over Wales at Shrewsbury. A month later, on 12th December, he played for an FA Amateur XI that defeated the Royal Navy 4-0 at Fratton Park, Portsmouth. This match saw Barrie go the closest he ever got to scoring in a Representative match when a shot of his struck a post. There were just sufficient days left in the year for the citizens of St Albans to pay tribute to Barries achievements by voting him to be The Herts Advertiser Sports Personality of the Year. He was presented with his cup by another local boy done good, Redbourn-born Ron Henry of Tottenham Hotspur.
The long cold winter of 1962/63 put paid to football for many weeks with City playing just one game between 27th December and 8th March. But come March and Barrie was once again receiving international honours. On the 5th he came on as a 20th minute substitute, and gave an outstanding performance, in a trial match, as England saw off the professional England Youth team 4-0. The Youth team was coached by the former St Albans City coach Pat Welton.
Barrie, by now the City captain, faced possibly his sternest test yet in an England shirt when he lined up to face Scotland at Hampden Park on Friday, 15th March. Under the Hampden floodlights England chalked up a fine 4-2 victory. On the Saturday morning Barrie headed south to skipper the Saints in a home Isthmian League fixture against champions Wimbledon. Joining him on the homeward journey were four Wimbledon players who had also featured against Scotland but only one, Geoff Hamm, was selected for the 2-2 draw at Clarence Park.
The games kept coming thick and fast during April. He lined up for City in Isthmian League matches against Barking (1-1 at the Park) on Good Friday, and 24-hours later he led the Saints to a 6-2 win over Dulwich Hamlet at Champion Hill (defender Barry Payne scored four times). Watching the Barking match was Spurs chief scout Dickie Walker and following a chat with Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson the City captain was included in the Spurs Reserves side to face Nottingham Forest at White Hart Lane on the 18th. Barrie got on the scoresheet and had another disallowed as Spurs won 4-2.
Sadly, this was to be Barries final season with St Albans City and the chances of him finally getting his hands on a piece of silverware receded as City went down 4-1 at Barnet in the semi-final of the Herts Senior Cup on 20th April. Due to the bad winter St Albans still had nine fixtures to fit in by 1st June ? the season having been extended but Barrie featured in just five. He was not included for the Saints Herts Charity Cup ties with Letchworth Town and Bishops Stortford thereby his last chance of collecting a trophy with St Albans had gone.
As the season drew to a close City sacked coach Jock Weir and following a 5-0 Herts Charity Cup semi-final win over Letchworth Town on 6th May ? two days after what turned out to be his last appearance for the club ? Barrie announced that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season. The man who took on the no.4 shirt for the remainder of the season was a youthful Phil Wood.
Barrie was still registered as a City player though when he made two more appearances for England in the north-east on the 15th and 18th of May. In the first game England defeated France 3-1 at Hartlepool but two days later he was on the losing side for the only time during the five games he played for his country whilst with St Albans. That reversal was suffered at the hands of West Germany who won 1-0 at Middlesbroughs Ayresome Park, the same ground where Wilfred Minter won the second of his three England caps in 1923. Barrie had just one final representative match to fulfil before leaving the Saints and that was as a member of the Middlesex Wanderers side that lost 3-2 to Enfield at Southbury Road on 28th May.
By the time the 1963-64 season got underway Barrie had made the short journey across the county to sign for Hitchin Town. But he featured in few of the Canaries early season matches as he was an unused member of a 15-man Great Britain squad that travelled to, and beat, Iceland 6-0 in a qualifying match for the 1964 Olympics. At the end of that season Barrie made his final two appearances for England in defeats to France (4-3) and West Germany (1-0) at Santa Margherita and Finale Ligure respectively.
In 1965 Barrie signed for Southern League side Barnet and became the Bees first professional player. His international days may have been over but in 1972 he played at Wembley, as Barnet went down 3-0 to Stafford Rangers in the final of the FA Trophy.
At the end of that season Barrie emigrated to Australia but returned four years later to work for estate agents Stimpson Lock and Vince. He resumed his football career during the two years that he spent back in England, becoming player manager of Herts County League side Sandridge Rovers ? a club also managed by his brother Alan. Barrie and his family headed back to Adelaide in 1978 but sport remained a big part of his life and he went on to represent South Australia at Lawn Bowls.
He continued to live in Adelaide until he passed away on Sunday, 29th March 2015.
If you can help with information including images please click here to e-mail us
|
