EDMUND BURTON BARRY
52 Cady Street, Rochester, N. Y.
9/5/1898 – 8/20/1918
Edmund Burton Barry was born in Rochester, N. Y., September 5, 1898, son of Edmund Parker and Charlotte M. Barry. He attended Public Schools, Numbers 3 and 4, and West High School, where he was prominent in athletics and captain of the basketball team. He was a member of Brick Presbyterian Church and Sunday School. He entered the service at Rochester, N. Y., April 7, 1917, in the United States Naval Reserve Force, as Apprentice Seaman, at the age of 18 years, and was sent to Philadelphia, Pa. He served on the U.S.S. Granite State, from April 20, 1917, to May 11, 1917; at the Naval Air Station, Bay Shore, Long Island, from May 11, 1917, to December 12, 1917; Naval Air Station, Key West, Florida, from December 17, 1917, to March 3, 1918. He was promoted to Chief Quartermaster, February 16, 1918, and was commissioned Ensign, and appointed a Naval Aviator, on March 3, 1918, assigned to duty, Naval Air Station, Key West, Florida. He was Apprentice Seaman, 302 days and Chief Quartermaster, 14 days. On March 6, 1918, he was transferred from Key West to Washington, D. C, for temporary duty; thence to Aviation Forces, France; April 25, 1918, reported to Aviation Forces and to Naval Air Station, Moutchic-Dacanau, France (Gironde); later stationed at St. Trojan.
He died, August 20, 1918, at St. Trojan, France, as a result of a bomb explosion on a seaplane. Ensign Barry was one of the Coast Patrol Fliers when a request for aid was wirelessed from a torpedoed ship. As the fliers were starting the machine down the runway toward the water to go to the ship’s help, one of the bombs dropped by accident exploding 200 pounds of T.N.T., which bomb exploded another in the rack killing Barry instantly together with fifteen others in the immediate vicinity. He was first buried at St. Trojan, France; removed, October 24, 1921, and received at Paris, November 22, 1921; reburied in Suresnes Cemetery, May 4, 1922, where he remains. Another Rochester boy, Walter Sparrboom, Jr., is buried near Ensign Barry. These two boys were in the same Sunday School Class at Brick Church.
Ensign Barry was accounted one of the most able naval fliers in European waters. He was a member of the Aero Club of America, and the Army and Navy Club of America.
On September 15, 1918, a gold star, the first one, that of Ensign Barry, was added to the Service Flag at the Brick Presbyterian Church, of Rochester, N. Y. The pastor, Rev. William R. Taylor, D. D., offered the following tribute:
“There is a gold star on our Service Flag this morning, the first to be placed there. We hardly dare hope that it will be the last. ” It is in proud and loving memory of Ensign Edmund Burton Barry, of the Aviation Section of the United States Navy, who was killed by the accidental explosion of a bomb on August 20th last.
“The fineness and strength of his character were shown in the circumstances of his enlistment. On Good Friday of last year war was declared. The next day this lad of eighteen, still a pupil in the West High School, where he had been a leader in athletic sports, went by himself and offered his services to the Navy. That night he told his parents what he had done in obedience to the sense of duty which pressed irresistibly upon him. In his bed-chamber that night father, mother and only son talked together
until the small hours of the morning, all joining sorrowfully and yet triumphantly in the sacrifice. The next day, Easter Sunday, the father signed the necessary papers and on the following day the lad was gone! So quickly was the momentous business accomplished.
“If the manner of his enlistment revealed anything of his spirit his brief career following revealed even more. Entering the service as a common Seaman, he aspired to something higher, and within a year and a few days of his enlistment he had completed the very difficult course of training prescribed for naval aviators, winning his commission as an Ensign two months after he had passed his nineteenth birthday. Early last April he sailed for service in foreign waters.
“His contribution toward the winning of the war was small, but he made it in a great way. His soul took on nobleness from the nobleness of the cause in which he perished. Like Christ, he died for others. To what use more divine could his life have been put?
“Edmund Burton Barry! With sadness, and yet with joy and pride and thankfulness, we inscribe his name at the top of our Honor Roll and change his black star in our Service Flag for the golden one, testifying that he was ‘Faithful unto death.’
” ‘Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.’ ”
The following verses were written by Ensign Barry’s sister, Mrs. Rena Barry Skerritt, for her brother’s twentieth birthday, September 5, 1918, and were sent to France. He never received them, as he was killed on August 20th:
BROTHER O’ MINE
Brother O’ Mine You came on a soft
‘Twas years ago September night,
That we looked, and longed, You touched our lives
And prayed for you so. With a joyous light.
Our childish hearts We loved and were happy,
Sang out, each day, And watched you grow,
For a wee bit brother And scolded, as sisters
To come and play. Will as you know.
Now you’re a man
And across the sea
And its waves beat high
In this heart o’ me.
And just as we did
In those days ago
We look, and long
And pray for you so,
Brother O’ Mine!
O Brother O’ Mine!
After receiving the news of her brother’s death Mrs. Skerritt wrote the following:
OUR STAR
Brave, lone Crusader of the skies,
One day when your blest work was done,
In chariot of damask wing
You rode away into the Sun.
A little child, who looks for you
And dreams you, in his Land of Nod
Has ventured that you flew so high
You rode into the arms of God!
And then God loosed a golden star,
And put your spirit there to dwell
Within its place, then turned to us
In pity while the gold star fell.
A letter received from Chaplain Edwin F. Lee said, in part:
“I am sure that a word telling about his burial and the respect shown for him by his comrades, and the French people as well, will be welcome to you.
You have doubtless, ere this, received an official notification of his death which was caused by an accidental explosion, while a hydroplane was being launched. It is one of those things which do not seem to be avoidable in military life, and already seven have succumbed to the injuries received at that time, while others have been more or less seriously injured.
“I was called upon to conduct the burial service for five of these men, on August 22. On the 24th I buried the other two in the cemetery at La Rochelle. Your son sleeps in the little village cemetery on the island near his aviation camp. The entire island was in tears that day. All the Americans were in formation, the French and American Admirals from the nearest headquarters were also in attendance. The French people sent, literally,
loads of flowers and joined with us in the funeral procession. The elderly village priest assisted me in the burial service. I was very happy to have him do this for I thought that some of the men might have come from Catholic homes and, in addition, it was a fine courtesy which the Commanding Officer showed to the village people. I am quite sure that if you had been present you would have found much comfort in the respect which was shown to your son’s body. You may be assured that your son’s life has been expended in a genuine service to humanity. His has been as sacrificial a death as though it had occurred in a spectacular conflict, for it was clearly in the line of duty, and while on his way to assist a ship in distress.”
From “World War Service Records Rochester and Monroe County, NY” The Du Bois Press, Rochester, NY – published by the City of Rochester, 1924
© Dan DeMarle 2018
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