R.I.P Geoffrey Thomas Barnes (M.1945c-50b)

From Guy Nickalls

Geoffrey Thomas Barnes CBE (M.1945c-‘50b) died after a long illness on the 11th February, 2010.

He was born in Malaya, and when the Japanese invaded escaped with his brother to Australia and thence returned to the UK.  At Dover he was Head of School, and his distinguished sporting record included the XV, Hockey XI, Athletics Team (Full Black), Captain of Fives, Breakwater Swim, Steeplechase Cup, W/Wt Boxing Cup. His elder brother K J Barnes was also at the College.

On leaving Dover he was called up for National Service and was commissioned in the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, serving in Malaya in 1951 during the Malayan Emergency. On completing his army service he went up to St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge from 1952-1955 where he read History, Anthropology and Archaeology.

He joined the Colonial Service and arrived in the Colony of Sarawak in 1956 where he served as District Officer, Magistrate, Private Secretary to the Governor and Principal Assistant Secretary, Chief Minister’s Office. When Sarawak became part of newly independent Malaysia he moved to Hongkong where he served as Secretary for Defence and Head of the Anti-corruption Department .

From Geoff’s brother, Ken Barnes:

Geoff died on the 11 th. February, 2010. He had been born in Malacca (one of the Malayan Straits Settlements) on 18^th. August, 1932 and brought up in Malaya and England, going to prep-school in this country in 1939. The outbreak of the Second World War and the Fall of France in 1940 thus found Geoff and his brother in England with their parents in Malaya. Like many other young children, they were then evacuated from England in case of an invasion, aboard the P&O liner ‘Viceroy of India’, the voyage to Malaya taking over 7 weeks. It was a great adventure with minimum supervision. In January 1941 he went to Guildford Grammar Preparatory School in W. Australia, returning to Malaya in December 1941 for the long Christmas holiday. The next week the Japanese invaded. By early January, his father recognised that Britain was losing and arranged for his wife and children to return to Australia (although not before having to take cover in a slit-trench in Singapore from Japanese bombers). In Australia, Geoff’s mother managed as best she could, unaware for many months whether or not her husband lived; meanwhile she was short of money and had lost most of her possessions. She decided that the best thing to do was to brave German – and Japanese – submarines and to return to England, a voyage that was to take almost four months and which was not without incident although escaping submarine attack.

Back in England ‘normal’ life was resumed, schooling, rationing and bombing, including V1s and V2s. In November, 1945, his father – almost a stranger to his 13 year-old son – returned much debilitated after 3 ½ years internment at the hands of the Japanese. By this time Geoff was a pupil at Dover College where he was to become  Head of House (St. Martin’s), Head of School and Head of the Sixth Form. His distinguished sporting record included the XV, Hockey XI, Athletics Team (Full Black), Captain of Fives, Breakwater Swim, Steeplechase Cup, W/Wt Boxing Cup. He was a keen Scout and his love of walking and camping remained with him all his life. He also won a place at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

First, though was National Service where he was commissioned in the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, serving in Malaya in 1951 during the Malayan Emergency. His experiences of living in the jungle hunting Communist rebels, of the possibility at any moment of being shot at by these and, if necessary, of himself shooting to kill were to affect him deeply. (His memoir of this period, ”The Dirty Half-Hundred “, published privately, is available from the Regimental Museum).  On finishing his army service he went up to St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1952. Finding University life rather dull after his experiences in Malaya, he and some like-minded friends decided to do something more unusual in the Long Vac.’53 by exploring some unknown areas around Lake Tana in Ethiopia (this was, of course, before the present era of mass tourism, while abundant quantities of abandoned WW ll weaponry all over N. Africa combined with fragmented societies to provide potential moments of interest). He returned late for the Michalmass Term but a blind eye was turned to this solecism and in 1955 he graduated In History, Anthropology and Archaeology. Thus was The Cambridge University Exploration Society founded. A record of the expedition was published under the title of “Into the Blue”

Geoff joined the Colonial Service and arrived in the Colony of Sarawak in 1956 (being met off the plane by his OD and St. Martin’s House contemporary, Guy Nickalls!). There, he was to serve, very happily, as a  District Officer, Magistrate, as  Private Secretary to the Governor and as Principal Assistant Secretary, Chief Minister’s Office until 1966. This was the period firstly of ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia and secondly, in the ‘60’s, of Sarawak’s incorporation in the new state of ‘Malaysia’ to which most of the indigenes of Sarawak were opposed.

After a brief spell in England he was appointed to the Hong Kong Service as an Administrative Officer. The contrast could hardly have been greater between rural, relatively quiet Sarawak and urban, bustling (almost frenetic) Hong Kong. Moreover, Geoff had to start again at the bottom of the promotion pyramid – which counted for a lot in the intensely hierarchical Hong Kong Service. However, his experience and his personal qualities were to see him through.

In the early eighties, while Deputy Secretary for Health and Welfare, he set up a Council for Smoking and Health and was Chairman of the Anti-Smoking Publicity Campaign, this at a time when cigarette smoking was still the norm.  He also represented Hong Kong at a World Anti-Smoking Conference in Winnipeg, Canada.

The job he found most satisfying and interesting was as Commissioner of the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC)’ a post that carried with it both enormous powers and responsibilities and in which he was responsible only to the Governor (to whom he reported monthly). He also hosted the first Anti-Corruption Conference in the Far East. He thoroughly enjoyed his three years with the ICAC (and indeed was invited by the Governor to take it again after his retirement). (He was always amused to note that he was the second Old Dovorian to hold the post – Sir Donald Ludington being the first – which presumably says something about the College). From this, he was appointed to the very senior post of Secretary for Security. There were big challenges: Vietnamese refugees – involving international conferences in Switzerland and also a personal visit to Hanoi – immigration from China and crime (always superabundant). He was also a member of the Legislative Council. For all these he was appointed a C.B.E.

After retirement, he was asked by the Foreign Office to conduct various surveys on the possibility of establishing Anti-Corruption Organisations in Latin America but could see little prospect of success in this given that all levels and segments of society there (to the highest) practiced corruption automatically and habitually. Nothing much has hanged there in the 20 years that have passed. Geoff’s life had covered the last years of the British Empire, from pre-war magnificence to a few scattered islands. Now he wanted peace. He had always loved sailing and found in it – particularly the calm when moored at the end of the day – an overwhelming sense of peace and relaxation. Apart from this, Geoff’s determination was that he and Nita would establish a family home base such as he had never had. This they did, creating in ‘Alloways’, a comfortable, spacious home for their three sons and a daughter, their wives and six grand-children, all of whom survive.

KB/kb 14/03/10