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Major Barrye Inglis MBE
Late Grenadier Guards
by Major J P W Gatehouse
formerly Grenadier Guards
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Barrye Malcolm Peter Inglis died on 16th November 2023, aged just 71. I knew him as a smart, cheerful, popular and unflappable Warrant Officer in the 2nd Battalion in the 1980s and early 1990s, at Ballykelly (where the Battalion was based for 27 months) and later at Caterham. He was a good all-round sportsman, noisily playing scrum half for the Battalion and one match, against Limavady Town, is etched on the memory; the entire pitch was under about 3 inches of water but nonetheless we played on, with a lot of squelching and encouragement from behind the scrum!
His career had started in Southampton in August 1968 where he enlisted, and he spent the next year as a Trainee Guardsman at the Guards Depot. In August 1969, aged 17, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion at Magilligan Camp near Londonderry and he would finish that first tour before his 18th birthday. He continued to serve with the Models at home and in Belize, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Cyprus, and in Northern Ireland on several more occasions. He had a two-year break from 1975-77, when he was recruiting back in Southampton. In June 1986 he was promoted to WO1 and promptly sent out to Zimbabwe, where he spent six ‘idyllic’ months with the Mozambique Training Team. In March 1987 he returned to the 2nd Battalion as the Sergeant Major, an appointment which he was well prepared for and ideally suited to. Therefore, it was no surprise when he was selected for a Late Entry commission.
In March 1989, Barrye was despatched to the 1st Battalion in Munster for two years, first as Families Officer in the build up to Operation GRANBY, then later as Motor Transport Officer. In September 1991 he returned to the 2nd Battalion in Caterham, initially as the Technical Quartermaster, then as Quartermaster during the difficult period before the 2nd Battalion went into suspended animation. He went on to be Quartermaster of the 1st Battalion in Wellington Barracks, eventually retiring in 2007 and moving to Pembrokeshire.
He married Anne in July 1974 and they had two sons, Danny and Stuart. He remained a keen sportsman and he was a passionate fisherman. It was once said of him, ‘one day the Sergeant Major will go fishing on his boat, on the sea, with his coarse tackle, in whites, carrying a pacestick, with his golf clubs on his back and his flask full of maggots!’. |
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