Service: Army – 2/29 Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company
Service number: VX36027
Locality on Enlistment: Elliminyt
Duration of Service: 4 Jul 1940 – 4 Oct 1943
Prisoner of War: Yes – Malaya
Honours: None for display
Date and Place of Birth: 15 Nov 1923 Dunkeld
Parents: Gordon McConnell BARRY and Alice Ivy KRAFT
Spouse:
School/s:
Occupation:
Date and Place of Death: 4 Oct 1943 Thailand
Place of Burial: Singapore Memorial, Singapore
NOTES:
The 2/29th Battalion arrived in Singapore on 15 August 1941. They reached Bakri on 17 January 1942 and assumed defensive positions. The Japanese attacked the next day. The fighting was fierce. With its ammunition exhausted, casualties mounting, and no chance of relief, the combined Australian-Indian force struck out through the jungle for Yong Peng on the morning of 23 January. Only 130 from the 2/29th made it back to British lines. After the battle of Bakri, the 2/29th was reinforced with 500 men – many of whom had only recently arrived from Australia – and subsequently fought as part of the defence of Singapore. However, they could not stop the Japanese and on 15 February the British commander on Singapore surrendered.
The 2/29th spent the next three-and-a-half years as prisoners of war. Concentrated in Changi gaol, the battalion was used to supply labour for work parties, first in Singapore and then in other parts of Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Men were sent to Burma and Thailand to work on the railway, while others were sent to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Japan. Lindsay Barry signed the flag which was kept hidden by C Company 2/29 Battalion, along the Burma-Thailand railway. Lindsay died of Pneumonia whilst in captivity, he was 19 years of age. Australian War Memorial