Barry was born in Norwich, England and attended Norwich School where he was a house captain and a member of the rugby, hockey and tennis firsts. After school he worked at the head office of the Norwich Union Insurance Group working on one of the early mainframe systems of the time.

Barry and Margaret married in 1960 and with two small children came to Canberra in 1966 after he was offered a job with the Commonwealth Actuary. They moved with their four children to Melbourne in 1968 where he became responsible for the Myer Group’s superannuation and insurance in Australia. He introduced Myer’s first ever computer system – for the super fund! He subsequently became a partner in two actuarial consulting firms (managing partner in one) and general manager of Australian Eagle. He was president of the Actuaries Institute of Australia in 1986.

While working part-time as chairman of a number of superannuation funds he joined our club in 1996 in the hope that it would provide something to do on one day a month. However, he was soon heavily involved becoming treasurer and then president in 2001. He was the first chairman of the investment group which ran for 18 years and joined PRISMs at the outset. From 2000 he hosted over 100 music. opera and jazz group evenings in Margaret’s art studio. There were also 12 Christmas parties in the garden with music afterwards. Having moved to a smaller house he and Margaret began hosting Sunday music afternoons for smaller groups.

In 2011 he set up two parallel discussion groups focusing on about 100 topics until he stepped down after 13 years. He is also a member of the digital technology and wine appreciation groups. Margaret and Barry have been keen supporters of many of the club’s activities and have been on the overseas trips to China, NZ, Italy and Scandinavia. Probus has been a large part of their lives for almost 30 years and Barry hopes that other members will enjoy participating as much as he has. He was made a life member in 2010.

Barry played golf at Victoria for 40 years and has always gained satisfaction from being a do-it-yourself man around the house and garden. In more recent years he and Margaret became enthusiastic cruisers but are now limiting their adventures to Australia.

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