BARRY, ARTHUR LEO (1893-1972)

BARRY, ARTHUR LEO, military officer and fisheries director; b. Oromocto, N.B., 15 May 1893, s/o James H. Barry and Agnes Kelly; m. 1915, Sadie Bridget Hogan, sister of Catherine Mary Hogan; d. Newcastle, 26 Apr 1972.

Arthur L. Barry was educated in Fredericton and trained as a teacher at the Provincial Normal School. He taught briefly at Blacks Harbour before joining the staff of Harkins Academy in the fall of 1913. A year later he was recruited into the commissioned ranks of the armed forces. He went to the front in 1916 with the 26th Infantry Battalion, of which A. Ernest G. McKenzie, a former principal of Harkins, was commanding officer. He won the Military Cross in 1918 and was discharged as a captain.

After the war Barry was engaged as accountant and manager of the estate of David J. Buckley. In 1924 he was appointed to the federal Fisheries Department as supervisor for New Brunswick. He was transferred to Halifax as director for the Maritimes around 1940 and to Ottawa after World War II as director of Eastern Fisheries. He retired from government service in 1956 and was later employed in Moncton with an insurance firm. He returned to Newcastle in 1963.

Barry remained active in the militia for many years and was commanding officer of the North Shore Regiment from 1929 to 1933. In 1948 he was made honorary lieutenant colonel of the regiment. He was an important figure in the Canadian Legion, serving a term as president of the New Brunswick command. His military career is outlined in an autobiographical booklet entitled Batman to Brigadier.

Barry served as a member of the Miramichi Hospital and VON boards and as president of the Miramichi Historical Society. He was an organizer of the Miramichi Woodlot Owners' Association and took an interest in the activities of the Cooperative movement and the Knights of Columbus. He and his wife, Sadie B. Hogan, had two daughters.