Second Lieutenant Terence BARRY (1940)

1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles (Royal Ulster Regiment)
Born 6 June 1921 in the District of Devonshire and Paget, Bermuda
Killed in action 5 December 1943, aged 22
Buried at Cassino War Cemetery, Italy. Also commemorated on the war memorials of Borden Grammar School, the London Irish Rifles, and Sittingbourne.

Terence Barry was the second son of Patrick Barry, an admiralty clerk, and his wife, Margaret, both of whom originally hailed from County Cork, Ireland.

Educated at St Edward’s Roman Catholic School in Sheerness, and Borden Grammar School, he came up to read Modern History, but his university career was soon interrupted by the exigencies of the Second World War: while still a student, he served in the University’s Senior Training Corps and then enlisted into a territorial battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Awarded second class honours in the first part of his degree, Barry was selected for officer training emerging five months later with a second-lieutenancy in the 1st London Irish Rifles (LIR).

Barry was posted to Iraq, and from there to Egypt in June 1943. Only one month later, however, his battalion embarked for Sicily, seeing action there for the first time. Following the invasion of the Italian mainland in September 1943, he embarked for Salerno and then pushed north toward the Gustav Line, a formidable enemy position that ran from one side of the Italian Peninsula to the other, blocking the advance on Rome. The outer bastion of this position, a mountain known as Monte Camino, had to be captured before the Allies could even contemplate launching an assault on the Gustav Line itself. Following the failure of a previous attempt, the task fell to 1st LIR as part of the 56th London Division. The assault began on 3 December 1943 and, after eight days’ bitter fighting, Monte Camino was unexpectedly abandoned by the enemy. Some 80 men from 1st LIR lost their lives in the attack, among them Barry, killed by enemy mortar fire while leading a patrol on 5 December 1943.

Posthumously mentioned in despatches for his gallant conduct, Terence was initially buried in Mieli, a small village at the foot of Monte Camino, before being interred in Cassino War Cemetery.