The singing, whistling Liverpudlian
Music and a love of books carried Brian through life
Brian Barry Born: Dec. 22, 1939, in Liverpool,
England Died: June 4, 2012, in Ottawa
Two little babies arrived on a snowy winter’s night at The Oxford Street Hospital in Liverpool, England, to Mary and Joseph Barry.
They were one month premature and their names were Edward Brian Barry and John Barry. They were the second set of twin boys to be born to this young couple, with no help from fertility drugs.
The Second World War had just begun. Amid bombing raids, rationing, sleeping in a bomb shelter in front of their house, for five years these children thrived. Brian sang, and whistled his way through these difficult times, not realizing they were supposed to be tough years.
He revelled in the love of his parents, and through their help developed a lifelong love of sport, music and books. At six years of age, he walked a mile all by himself to his nearest library to request a library card. He was turned away as he wasn’t seven years of age, a prerequisite no one told him about. The head librarian happened to be walking by, stopped, and said to the small boy, “Can you read?” Whereupon she gave him a book, which he read to her satisfaction, and she gave him his first library card.
He was a passionate soccer player and fan, playing until he was 56 years old. He had an encyclopedic memory and could quote scores, players and full teams 40 years later, remembering as if it were yesterday. He coached soccer in his early days, starting firstly with the Glens and latterly with Nepean Hotspurs back in the 1970s. He coached the same team of boys in the Hotspurs, moving through each division with them for nearly 10 years.
Music was so much a part of his life. He loved Big Bands, jazz, and classical music. We were treated to all manner of music, sung or whistled however the mood took him, anywhere, anytime. We never thought it odd that he would sing West Side Story in a grocery store, that was just Brian. Liverpool was becoming a force to be reckoned with on the musical scene in the 1960s. Brian played the trumpet in the Cavern Club in a band that never went anywhere. He loved to recount the story of how his band was approached by Brian Epstein, who wanted to manage them, and they rebuffed him, thinking that he did not know what he was doing. Epstein went on to manage the biggest band in the world, The Beatles.
Brian served a five-year apprenticeship, starting at 16 years of age, in mechanical engineering, and obtained his City and Guilds qualifications. He was not sure that was what he wanted to do with his life, but his father arranged the apprenticeship and being an easy going lad, he went along with the idea. At the conclusion of his apprenticeship, he signed on with Canadian Pacific Steamships as fourth officer and spent seven happy years going to sea and seeing the world. In 1965, he met a Canadian girl in Montreal, and it was love at first sight.
They married in 1966 and he left the sea, and they went to England. He was not keen to live in Canada, he said, but after some persuasion on her part, they emigrated in 1970. He obtained a teaching position in Churchill, Man., a very big change for him from Liverpool. After three rewarding and challenging years, they moved to Ottawa. By now their family had grown to include two children, Pia and Kathryn.
Brian obtained what he considered his “dream job” at the Royal Canadian Mint, and was so proud to call himself a “Mint Man” for more than 30 years. At his funeral, his colleagues recounted how the only time they ever saw Brian upset was when a memo was circulated asking him to refrain from singing or whistling, as it was considered disruptive.
Upon his retirement, and after a great deal of thought, he decided to volunteer at Sir Guy Carleton High School in the SAGE program. This program provides opportunities for students to develop and improve their basic literacy skills by working one on one with trained and devoted volunteers once a week. He also volunteered at the Peter D. Clark Long Term Care home, reading and telling jokes to seniors. It was always about the books and literacy, so dear to his heart.
In 2008, in preparation for his annual medical, some anomalies in his blood work presented themselves, and after some further testing, it was determined he had stage four colon cancer. He underwent surgery, and then embarked on a very difficult trial at the Ottawa Cancer Centre. He lived for four more years, always on treatment.
He died June 4, 2012, at the Hospice at May Court. He will always be loved and certainly never forgotten. His legacy to us? A six-year-old grandson, Zachary, who can read as well as Brian could at six years of age, and who has his own library card, without having to prove he could read. Zachary sings and whistles all the time, just as well as “Grandad,” especially in his Grade 1 class where it is considered “disruptive.”