Don Barrett
Private 456511 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Italy 1944–45
Early life
Charles Donald Richard Barrett, known as Don, was born on 21 January 1923 and grew up in Dannevirke, the son of Charles David Barrett and Maisie Myrtle Beatrice Barrett (née Howard). His whānau is Kāi Tahu and Ngā Iwi o Tākitimu. He worked as a grocery assistant, and he had already served at home before going overseas, joining the RNZAF as a flight rigger at 17 and later the Territorials.
War
Don sailed with D Company on the Highland Princess in 1944 and served with the battalion in Italy, working in company intelligence. He came home with the battalion on the Dominion Monarch in January 1946.
After the war
By 1948 Don was back in Dannevirke. He became a builder and a company director, and he also restored antiques. Don died on 27 April 2003, aged 80, and his ashes are at Kelvin Grove Cemetery, Palmerston North.
Sources
Online Cenotaph C117756 (information from family); Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune, 20 January 1948.
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