Current Information:

Age-35

87 Paignton Road, Vartry Road, Stamford Hill

Born-Rothesay, Bute

Ration Farm Military Cemetery, La Chapelle-d'Armentieres, France

Until they were faced head on with the grim realities of the Battle of Loos in September, 1st Middlesex, compared with many other battalions of the British Army, had a relatively easy time for most of 1915. A part of 19 Brigade, they were a unit of 6th Division when the year began but at the end of May, 1915, 19th Brigade, including 1st Middlesex, became part of  27th Division. But this transfer did not involve  any change of sector. 19 Brigade remained in the relatively quiet trenches at Rue du Bois in northern France. But not quiet enough for Private Barbour who was killed here on 20th June. There is no information about his death. Battalion diaries and regimental histories rarely give details of of individual deaths, unless of course they were officers. The rest were just numbers. The most likely explanation was shellfire, but he could have been the victim of a German sniper.