Roll of Honour

Captain

Hugh Barr

MB ChB

Hugh Barr was born on the 13th January 1883 at 18 West Campbell Street in Paisley, Renfrewshire, where his father Hugh Barr (1852-1937) was a Master Joiner and Builder, his mother was Annie Hendry Barr (nee Dodds) (1854-1896), and they had married on the 1st September 1876 in Abbey Landward, Renfrewshire. After attending the town’s John Neilson Institution and Paisley Grammar School he chose to study Medicine at Glasgow and matriculated in 1900, when he was seventeen. The family business was in Espedair Street, their home at Whitecroft, Wester Carriagehill, Paisley. His academic career was smooth. He made one appearance on the prize list, passed his exams and graduated MB ChB in 1905. At the time of the outbreak of the Great War he was in practice in New Zealand.

Memorial chapel at the University of Glasgow
The Memorial Chapel at the University of Glasgow

Hugh joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1915 as a Lieutenant, and was promoted to Captain on the 7th October 1916. He was 35 when he was fatally wounded in Salonika and died on the 21st February 1917. His parents, Annie and Hugh, were informed at their home in Paisley. An announcement appeared in his local newspaper the Auckland Weekly News, and an obituary in the Lancet. Captain Hugh Barr was buried in Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, close to Thessaloniki, Greece.

Captain Barr was one of 30 doctors from New Zealand who were killed in the War, and is remembered on Glasgow University’s Roll of Honour and on Paisley Grammar’s War Memorial to be found on the Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project's website.

Comments and Citations

University of Glasgow Registry and General Council (GUAS Ref: R8/5/21/1, R8/5/24/1).

Burial Place: Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Find War Dead