Career
At only sixteen years of age Barry served in World World War II – falsifying his date of birth in order to enlist. He was mentioned in despatches and went missing in action before he was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald to be a Prisoner Of War in Italy. He escaped two years later and crawled barefoot, without food or water, over the Dolomites to Switzerland.
His experiences inside the camp would directly influence his 1965 novel Crumb Borne.
In 1961 he was appointed the United Nations representative in the Congo.
