http://www.faaaa.asn.au/news/barrey.htm

Question from above URL. Anyone able to help Stephen Clifford please? Thanks.
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Flying Officer Ray Barrey 14 October 2008

Stephen Clifford of Sydney, as a relation to Flying Officer Raymond Barker Barrey A/407000 – killed serving with 9 RAAF Squadron on board HMAS Sydney in November 1941 – is asking for help.

He is related to Ray on Ray's wife's side of the family and he is trying desperately to find a photo of Ray or his Walrus aircraft, or him on HMAS Sydney, from which he flew while on HMAS Sydney for most of 1941.

[The picture shows a Walrus on Sydney in 1939 - picture from Fleet Air Arm Archive website].

He is also trying to contact anyone who may be able to tell him about Ray. From Ray's extended family, 7 served and 6 were killed. He would appreciate any pointers anyone can give apart from contacting the RAAF or 9 RAAF Association, as he has already exhausted those avenues.

They suggested he try the HMAS Sydney II Association. Any other suggestions etc would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen's telling of the Ray Barrey story goes along these lines:

Ray enlisted in 1940 and was trained at Point Cook, then sent to the Seaplane Training Flight and arrived at 9 RAAF Squadron in 1941.

He replaced the earlier pilot Flight Lieutenant Thomas McBride Price DFC RAAF who served with HMAS Sydney throughout the Middle East campaign and had his Seagull shot down during a shore bombardment spotting flight, which led to the award of his DFC. Tom Price later converted to Catalinas and reached the rank of Squadron Leader and survived the war serving on seaplanes the entire war in the Pacific.

The FAA in the RN then loaned a Walrus to HMAS Sydney to replace her shot down Seagull V.

Ray is always remembered to me by his family's description of his smile (which I have never seen). At a family reunion one time, his wife reported it lit up the room, even if he suffered from big ears!

They were married in Sydney, as Ray was based at RAAF Rathmines at the time and when he was posted to HMAS Sydney they thought it was fate in a good way, as Sydney was Ray's home port.

One of the last letters Ray wrote to his brother Clement Barrey (served with RAF, survived war, painting of him in the AWM) described how he "planned to set up shop with his new wife" in Sydney, and as it was HMAS Sydney's home port, he would always be "guaranteed a hot feed ashore and a beer or two".

He also described the Walrus as being something like flying a "push bike" and that it leaked water on the pilot "a dam lot" while taxying to be recovered.

I think the best line in that letter is the one where he describes being catapulted off HMAS Sydney the first time in Sydney Harbour, with Tom Price, as being "better than riding with no brakes down that hill that nearly killed him as a kid" back in South Australia. It's something I value highly - even if it is only a photocopy.

After Dad left the army in 1983, we moved to Nyngan and unfortunately during the flood in 1993, we lost almost all his material that was passed down to us. It was very heartbreaking indeed.

I am also trying to track down the below 2 members, both RAAF pilots on cruisers, one of which served on HMAS Perth and was a POW. They are -

MCDONOUGH, ALLEN VERNON, Royal Australian Air Force, service number 407008 (note his and Ray's number of 407000)
Date of birth: 6 Dec 1914
Place of birth: Adelaide, SA
Date of enlistment: 29 Apr 1940
Place of enlistment: Adelaide
Next of kin, McDonough, J
Date of discharge: 9 Jan 1946
Rank: Flight Lieutenant
Posting at discharge: 5 Medical Rehab Unit
Prisoner of war: yes

and

PRICE, THOMAS MACBRIDE, Royal Australian Air Force, service number 172
Date of birth: 14 Nov 1914
Place of birth: Adelaide SA
Date of enlistment: 18 Jan 1937
Place of enlistment: Point Cook VIC
Next of kin: Price J
Date of discharge: 23 Mar 1945
Rank: Wing Commander
Posting at discharge: 1 Operatonal Training Unit
WW2 honours and gallantry: Distinguished Flying Cross
Prisoner of war: no

Yours with thanks, Stephen Clifford, Sydney NSW, trustn1@bigpond.com.

Postscript:
The casualties were 4 RAN and 2 RAAF, 1 RAAF came home;
2 were killed on HMAS Sydney (1 RAN, 1 RAAF);
2 were killed on HMAS Perth;
1 was killed on attachment to SRD in 1944; and
The last one was killed flying Lancasters in 1945 in the UK with 617 RAF Squadron.

All were encouraged not to join the AIF on their Great War relations' views, and all were lost in water-related incidents. Ray was married in 1941 and had no children. His wife never re-married and is now deceased (and missed greatly, especially those stories of eating rabbit in the great depression!).