Barrett, Knox Gordon (Knox)
Lieutenant
Z20th Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery
Killed in action on Thursday, 20 September 1917 (aged 29)
Buried:
Canada Farm Cemetery, Belgium (Grave III. C. 7)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Bangor and District War Memorial
Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum
Bangor Masonic Lodge No. 286
Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s)
Family Grave Headstone in Bangor Abbey Graveyard
Campbell College Belfast
Brother of Captain Ernest William Barrett
Brother of Sub-Lieutenant Norman James Barrett
BIOGRAPHY
Know Gordon Barrett was born on 30 November 1887 in Downshire Road, Holywood and he was the eldest son of James Hunter Barrett JP (born in County Donegal) and Eleanor Jane Barrett (nee Hughes, born in County Down) who were married on 13 November 1884 in Saul Parish Church of Ireland Church, Co Down. James Hunter Barrett from Holywood was a son of John Barrett, a farmer. Eleanor Jane Hughes from Walshestown, Strangford was a daughter of Edward Hughes, a farmer.
The Barrett family lived in Church Road, Holywood before they moved to Seaview, Queen’s Parade, Bangor. Later the Barrett family moved to Leysfield, Regent’s Park Road, Church End, Finchley, London.
An ex-Royal Irish Constabulary policeman, James Hunter Barrett was Clerk of the Petty Sessions in North Down and he and Eleanor Jane had five children:
Elizabeth Rebecca (Daisy, born 3 November 1885 in Downshire Road, Holywood)
Knox Gordon (born 30 November 1887 in Downshire Road, Holywood)
Ernest William (born 16 February 1890 in Kinnegar, Holywood)
Norman James (born 16 April 1894 in The Highlands, Ballymenoch)
St Clair Edward John (born 5 September 1898 in Riverside, Holywood)
Shortly after the outbreak of the Great War Knox Gordon Barrett returned from Hong Kong where he was working in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.
He joined the Royal Field Artillery Cadet Corps at Exeter and in July 1917 it was reported that he had suffered a gunshot wound in the thigh and was hospitalised in France.
Lieutenant Knox Gordon Barrett was killed on 20 September 1917 when a shell exploded beside where he was standing outside a dugout.
Aged 29 when he suffered injuries to his head, shoulder and leg, he never recovered consciousness. He died some ten minutes after sustaining his injuries and was buried in a cemetery behind the lines alongside a corporal who was killed by the same shell.
Knox was the third of three Barrett brothers to die on active service in the Great War and, after his death, condolences were expressed to his father at Holywood Petty Sessions.
James Hunter Barrett’s only surviving son Second Lieutenant St Clair Edward Barrett served in France with Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers).
Lieutenant Knox Gordon Barrett was buried in Canada Farm Cemetery in Belgium and he is commemorated on Bangor and District War Memorial; on the Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque; in the Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum; in Bangor Masonic Lodge No. 286; in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s) and in Campbell College Belfast.