The Late Colonel Barrie G. Keast
We are most grateful to the family of Col. Barrie Keast (Rtd) who sadly passed away on 17th May 2024, for the following.
My Father
Thank you all for coming today, this is not a day of sadness, but a day to celebrate the life of a truly great and inspirational man, husband and father.
Born into a working-class family on 6th April 1930 to Ivy & Earnest Keast in St Austell my Dad was to be an only child. His father was a bus driver, and his mother did various office and cleaning jobs.
At age 5 he attended the Lawn School in St Austell, a fee-paying school that was completely out of reach financially, but the fees were paid by a local doctor, his mother’s employer at the time, who had recognised his tremendous potential.
Dad did extremely well in his early education and won a scholarship to St Austell County School for Boys, without which, his attendance would have been impossible as the annual fees put secondary education at the time beyond the reach of most working-class children.
With the 2nd World War in its fifth year, he decided he would like to pursue a career in the Army and duly sat the Entrance Exam for the Army Apprentices College at Arborfield.
He of course passed and at 15 commenced three years of military and electronic technician training.
He then was then sent with other apprentices to Woolwich Polytechnic for four years to do an HND in Telecommunications. They had a daily allowance of a penny ha’penny for the tram fare to and from college but often shared a bicycle and then hunted at the tram stop for a discarded clean ticket to claim the allowance.
In 1949 he met, my mother, Margaret, his future wife at a Hall Dance in South London, she then returned to Yorkshire so for the next 3 years he travelled almost every weekend by train to Doncaster to meet up.
In 1953 as a newly promoted Seargent they married and honeymooned at the Great Western Hotel in Paddington for 2 days, then set up home in Camberley on £8 per week. A year later John was born, the first of four sons.
At this time, he sat an Officer Selection Board and failed, his mother , fiercely protective as all mothers are, was incensed and immediately went to see her local MP, Geoffrey Wilson, who wrote to the War Office on her behalf.
A reply was received from the Under-Secretary of State for War, stating that his progress was actually very good and that his Other Rank prospects were excellent and that he should be very satisfied.
Not the first time the Civil Service has got things spectacularly wrong!
Never one to give up he applied again for Officer Selection in 1955 and this time was successful.
The ensuing years involved many overseas postings which included Australia, Germany, Aden (Yemen), Outer Hebrides
Over time he was regularly promoted culminating in reaching the rank of Colonel in 1976 and taking command of the Army Apprentice College where his military career had started in 1945.
His great success was due to hard work and determination, he had a great talent to lead, inspiring loyalty from those around him, he always found the good in everyone and was selfless in helping others through organisations such as the Samaritans, RNIB and later in life SSAFA, the forces charity.
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A must read!
Thank you for the opptunity to view this former Army Apprentice and his rise to Col. There were not that many. Thank you to the family who provided the photographs and other snippits. GNB