Name: BARNES, HUMPHRY ASTON
Initials: H A
Nationality: Indian
Rank: Major
Regiment: Frontier Force Regiment
Secondary Regiment: Indian Political Department
Secondary Unit Text: and
Age: 40
Date of Death: 04/10/1940
Awards: CIE
Additional information: Son of Alfred Aston Barnes, M.A. and Norah Barnes; husband of Mair Olwen Barnes, of Needs Oar, Hampshire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 2. D. 3.
Cemetery: KARACHI WAR CEMETERY

Note: In the 1939 VS School Magazine is the following...

Up to 1880, the year after the children came to Constantia. Kurseong was spiritually ministered to by the Chaplain of Darjeeling. I am not able to establish the exact date of the opening of Christ Church. The first entry in its registers is dated August 5th, 1870. We find burial entries of that period terminating "buried by A. W. Vaul, Acting Commissioner." We, who today do not perhaps appreciate as we might the benefits we enjoy in the ministration of a resident Priest, can hardly imagine a time, just over 60 years ago, when one had to ride in all the way from Darjeeling. And now we have the railway, electric lights and telephone, and cars to our door!

At Christ Church were married "Mary Isabella Matthews, Spinster, teacher in the Government School," "Edward Lawrence Lynch Nile, Bachelor, Second Master," "Alfred Aston Barnes, Bachelor, Schoolmaster, to Norah Emily Pegler," and "Sidney James Hall, Bachelor, Gymnastic Instructor." Here were baptized "Annie Winifred PegIer," "Arthur Cecil, son of Arthur and Alice Chapman of the Government Boarding School," Earnest J. Fraser, son of Earnest Edward and Lilly Ewell Sharp," "Humphrey Aston, son of Alfred Aston and Norah Emily Barnes," and "Elizabeth Norah, daughter of Earnest Edward and Lilly Ewell Sharp." The registers record the deaths of Mr and Mrs Barnes, who, as we shall see, continued the work begun by Mr and Mrs Pegler. On the east wall of the Church, by the Font, there is a brass tablet to the memory of the Barnes'. Clickon the picture to see it in a larger scale.

An Extract from:-

"John Masters - A Regimented Live"

a biography written by John Clay.

John Masters was always one of my favourite writers. He wrote about India. (John F).

Page 48, JOHN MASTERS - INDIA 1934-1935

An even more typical example of his state of mind at this stage came April 1935 when his regiment went to play in a cricket match at Tank against a team put together by the Political Agent of South Waziristan, Major Barnes, a respected political officer. After the match, they had the usual drinks at the Political Agent's bungalow. Masters's exuberance got the better of him and he became very high-spirited, `lit up' in the phraseology of the day. He made some rather chancy remarks to Mrs Barnes, an older woman, who took exception to them. Dubious jokes and risque language were no part of her social milieu. The others present noticed this and, once they got back to Razmak, the Senior Subaltern, Tom Cooper, felt he had to take action. Robin Hodson met Masters outside the mess later that week as he was about to be called in to be questioned. He was facing a subalterns' court martial, a rare and serious event. In the end he got a real dressing down. Cooper told him his behaviour was unbecoming of a gentleman and of a member of the DCLI. One can sense how affronted Cooper, a senior subaltern of some seventeen years' service, must have felt at this newcomer's boisterousness, which, in this instance, was arguably almost a carbon copy of his father's behaviour on such occasions.