100 Years – August 31, 2024

One hundred years ago today, on August 31, 1924 at The Chestnuts in Roos, Yorkshire a baby boy was born to Ruth Hanbury Barry and James Harding Barry. Their third son in four years, he was christened James Brian, but went by Brian, and was called Brue (for the Irish king, Brian Boru).

A sister, Celia, followed four years later. She was my godmother, and very close to her big brother, Brian. Sadly, in 1930, Ruth died of influenza. The children bore different scars, but losing their mother when they were all under the age of ten was pretty devastating. Being British, they carried on bravely. They were lucky that their father, Jim, married Ruth’s half sister, Dorothea, who was a loving stepmother. She was called Bunty, and she adored Brian particularly.

Within the next ten years, World War II arrived. The three boys all joined up, Brian going into the Royal Navy at 16. They all survived the war. Brian served aboard HMS Orion at The Battle of Normandy / D-Day. Orion fired the first shot, albeit by mistake, as Brian would tell they story.

A dashing Royal Naval Officer, Brian went to Oxford in 1952, where he met an American, studying abroad. She returned in 1953, and Brian traveled to Chicago in January, 1954 to marry Gertrude Quetsch, known as Trudy.

They moved around, from Malta (Brian was chief engineering officer on Louis Mountbatten’s HMS Surprise) to Kent, to Aberdour, Fife, Scotland. And then, suddenly, in 1960, some English monks from Ampleforth (Brian’s Yorkshire Prep School) who had been asked to start a Catholic Boys’ School near St. Louis, suggested to Brian that he might be a teacher. Brian took the “golden bowler” and left the Royal Navy. It was not quite what Trudy had envisioned for her life, but Brian was a gifted teacher, and he loved The Priory. He thrived in St. Louis teaching boys who, as men, invariably remember his classes fondly. He was a respected member of the Academy of Science, he ran the Mark Twain Summer Institute, and he embraced the computer revolution, starting Computer Tutor with a memorable videotape called “First Bite of the Apple”. Brian worked at The Priory School until after he turned 80. He had a buoyant spirit.

I was lucky to be Brian and Trudy’s first child, of seven (six younger boys) and my good fortune was that Priory, where we lived, was in a rural area at the time, so I found opportunities to ride horses. Brian sent me to Porlock, a riding school in England, when I dropped out of nursing school in Bristol. Through horses, I met Harry, and my life has been magical since then. Harry and Brian became best friends, and someone once told me “Anne, you are marrying your father” – not in a creepy way. They looked like brothers and they were kindred silly souls.

Mark, the firstborn son, in 1956, made a video tribute to Brian in 2010, after he died. Here it is… https://youtu.be/5Cb-EO2HpSY?si=u9yr3Yq06VeIb2iL

Happy 100th birthday, Dad, wherever you are.

Be safe, be well. Remember… Slava Ukraini! Peace.