NAME: Gordon BARR
SERVICE NO: 5973
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH: Hotspur
DATE OF ENLISTMENT: 8 March 1916
PLACE OF ENLISTMENT: Warrnambool
AGE AT ENLISTMENT: 21
UNIT: 6th Battalion
EMBARKED: 28 July 1916
TROOPSHIP: HMAT A32 Themistocles
FATE: Returned to Australia – 4 January 1920
Image Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no. DA15926 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DA15926/
Gordon Barr was born at Hotspur in 1895 to George Barr and Susan McLellan. By 1909, the Barr family had moved to Strathkellar, near Hamilton, and Gordon attended the local state school. After his schooling, Gordon moved to Warrnambool, working as a labourer and living in Liebig Street. Warrnambool is where he enlisted on 8 March 1916 aged twenty-one.
Gordon left Australia with 6th Battalion on 28 July 1916 aboard the HMAT A32 Themistocles bound for France. He spent a lot of time in hospital in both England and France during 1917 and 1918 with pleurisy, rejoining his unit after each recovery. He eventually returned to Australia in 1920.
Eventually returning to Australia in 1920, Gordon spent the years immediately after his return farming near Willaura.
ONLINE SOURCES
Australian War Memorial – 6th Australian Infantry Battalion
Australian War Memorial – Embarkation Rolls – Gordon Barr
Discovering Anzacs – WW1 Service Record – Gordon Barr
Newspaper articles from Trove – Gordon Barr
Western District Families 