James Henry Barrett (SN 20376) was a 30 year old blacksmith from Church Street Ballarat when he enlisted on July 10th 1917. His wife Mary clearly did not want him to leave home, and she wrote to the army pointing out that ‘he has been laid up with a weak chest and is also troubled with deafness and I have two children and also am in delicate health myself.’ It seems that her plea went unheeded and he trained at Broadmeadows and Seymour before embarking on the Nestor on November 21st 1917 to reinforce the 15th Field Company Engineers. He spent a month at Suez before completing his journey to England. On August 14th 1918 he was posted to the Australian General Base Depot in France where he saw out the final three months of the war. In March 1919 he departed England on the Port Denison, disembarking at Melbourne on May 10th. He died on Australia Day 1957 at the age of 69.