Education
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
He acquired the nickname "Ugly". Barratt was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1910 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1914. He served in the First World War, commanding Number.
6 Squadron and then Number.
49 Squadron before taking over 3rd (Corps) Wing. After the war he became Assistant Commandant at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell and then Staff Officer for Administration at Headquarters Number.
3 Group. He was made Commandant at the School of Army Company-operation in 1926 and Air Staff Officer to the General Officer Commanding Shanghai in April 1927 before joining the Air Staff at Headquarters Number.
22 Group in November 1927. He went on to be Chief Instructor at the Royal Air Force Staff College, Andover in 1929, Air Officer Commanding Number.
1 (Indian) Group in 1931 and Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters Royal Air Force India in 1932. After that he was Director of Staff Duties at the Air Ministry in 1935 and then returned to the Royal Air Force Staff College, Andover, as Commandant in 1936.
He served in the Second World War as Principal Royal Air Force Liaison Officer to the French Air Force and then Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief British Air Forces in France.
When he heard that on 14 May 1940, forty of the seventy-one British bombers that had taken off did not return, he is said to have cried. He continued his war service as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Army Company-operation Command in November 1940 and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Technical Training Command in 1943. His last appointment was as Inspector-General of the Royal Air Force in 1945, in which capacity he took part in the Victory Parade in June 1946 before retiring in 1947.
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath – 11 July 1940 (Central Bank – 11 May 1937).