Brian Barry: NSW’s oldest living former NRL ref and Mosman resident turns 100.

By JACK KELLY. Images: gmphotographics 

One of NSW’s most respected names in Rugby League has celebrated his 100th birthday with friends and family at Balgowlah RSL.

Mosman resident Brian Barry, a former first-grade touch judge and referee, hit his century on Tuesday, 6 February and said he was “overwhelmed” when 300 people gathered to mark the momentous occasion on Saturday night.

During his colourful career, Mr Barry officiated hundreds of first-grade games, including five straight grand finals.

He is the oldest living former first-grade referee and a life member of the NSW Rugby League Referees Association.

“I am one of the luckiest blokes in the world,” Mr Barry told Mosman Collective, “with a wonderful family and terrific friends.”

“I didn’t ever think I would live to be 100.”

Born in 1924 and living in the same house that has raised three generations of his family, Mr Barry is still as sharp as a tack and can easily recall a childhood spent during the Great Depression.

He described 1930s Mosman as a tight-knit community. Few families had money, so neighbours traded provisions such as eggs and vegetables they farmed in their backyards to get by.

“We used to play cowboys and Indians, or you’d go up the shop, pinch a few boxes, and make a fort out of that in the backyard.

“Being a kid back then was nothing like it is today.

“My brother and I used to go to the sewerage plant at Primrose Park, collect the leftover coke [coal-based fuel] at the bottom of the pits, and sell it for pocket money,” Brain explained.

“It was very tough, but we survived.”

Brian’s wife, Rose, was diagnosed with dementia and passed away in 2016; she also would’ve been celebrating her 100th birthday this year.

The couple met when they were just 14 years old, and it is a love story that spans over 70 years.

In 1944, the same year he married, and at just 20, Mr Barry served his country as a soldier on the battlefields of New Guinea in World War Two.

“Rose and I got married, and then we had our daughter Sue, and she grew up and got married,” Mr Barry said, “then we had two grandchildren, and through them, we have three great-grandchildren, which is a big family.”

“I must be one of the luckiest blokes in the world because they say how lucky they are having me, but it’s me having them that has helped me through all these years.”

Still an active member of the North Sydney District Rugby League Referees Association and a lifelong fan of the North Sydney Bears, Mr Barry recalled making news during his time as a “touchie” when he was hit in the groin by an apple thrown from the crowd at the SCG during the end of the replay of the 1977 grade final between St George and Parramatta.

“The ball boy asked me ‘do you know what hit you, Mr Barry?’.

“I said ‘no’, but he said it was an apple.

“I said, ‘Go and see if you can find the bloke and give him a box of chocolates. He deserves it; he got me right in the you-know-what’s.

“By the next Sunday, I was black from my knees to the pit of my stomach. I can tell you it was a good shot. It did some damage.”

Mr Barry said staying active and having a “bloody good partner” were the two most important things to having a long life.

“Married life has been my proudest achievement over the past 100 years.

“If you’re ever in a row with your wife, be prepared to sit down and at least come to a decision – but don’t hold onto your grudges; you’ve got to admit someone is wrong. Don’t be afraid to say, “Yes, it was me.”

“If you wake up every morning, be pleased to say, Yes, I woke up – It’s another day, another day in my life, another opportunity. I am blessed to have made it this far. It feels good to be 100.”