Keith Walter Colin BARKER

BARKER, Keith Walter Colin

Service Number: W76867
Enlisted: 14 April 1942
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 16th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Born: Perth, Western Australia, 24 April 1903
Home Town: Meekatharra, Meekatharra, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Journalist
Died: Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 15 May 1964, aged 61 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

14 Apr 1942: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W76867, 16th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
14 Apr 1942: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W76867, 16th (NSW) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
15 Oct 1946: Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W76867, 16th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Date unknown: Involvement Private, W76867, 16th (WA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)
Date unknown: Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, W76867, 16th (NSW) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC)

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Keith was the eldest of four children of Walter Henry Barker (born 1871 in Burrowa, NSW) and Florence Gibb (born 1876 at Gordon near Ballarat, Victoria). Walter started as a Cadet Journalist in Cootamundra, NSW beofre moving to Leonara, WA where he was a Journalist when he married Florence in 1901. By 1906 the family moved to Port Hedland in WA where Walter founded the Port Hedland Advocate. In 1913 Walter moved the family to Broome, WA where he established the  North West Echo.

In 1927 Keith was working as a Printer in Broome, WA when he married Dorothy May Bateman (born 1900 in Buckinghampshire, England) in Broome. Dorothy arrived in Fremantle, WA with her parents and siblings in 1906 on board the Ormuz. Keith and Dorothy settled in Broome, where Keith worked as a Printer before relocating to Wiluna, WA in 1931 where he was a Journalist.

Keith enlisted with the ACMF as a Private (Service No:76867), and was attached to 16 Volunteer Defence Corps when he was Discharged in 1946. Brothers Jack Malcolm (Aircraftman; Service No:16999) and Neil Douglas (Flight Sergeant; Service No:210018) and Brother-in-Law George Stephen Williams (Service No:W96276) also served in WWII.

By 1949 Keith and Dorothy had moved to Northam, WA where Keith worked as a Printer before moving to Perth in the early 1960s. Keith died in 1964 and Dorothy in 1980.

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