Gryphon Gallery: Captain Gerald Barry

September 9, 2022

Alumni

Stuart Brambley, Archivist Stuart Brambley, Archivist photo

A veteran of WWI, serving with the Leinster Regiment, he was slightly stooped and heavy set, balding, and had a voice that could shatter glass within a thousand meters.

He was totally unique in his everyday dress choice as he would almost always wear a school uniform of grey shorts, white and blue ringed woolen socks, and a blue crested blazer. Instead of the school cap, he wore a beret with the Glenlyon crest affixed and he would carry his ex-army pack with a cane protruding out the top, seen in this painting of him with his green Raleigh bicycle.

He taught Mathematics and Latin and was viewed by the boys with a mixture of fear and respect. Knowledgeable about many things, he would often stray from the academic subject at hand and discuss things like the invention of penicillin or splitting an atom. He also coached cricket and soccer, often sitting on his shooting-stick, while urging the boys to give of their best. Every boy was referred to as ‘brat’, yet according to another student, “somewhere deep within there was a warmth and compassion that surfaced now and again.”

Plagued by deteriorating health, Capt. Barry retired in 1955 and passed away shortly after in Sidney, BC.