Admiral Chris Barrie

Biography

Admiral Chris Barrie was born in Sydney and received his secondary education at North Sydney Boys High School before entering the Royal Australian Naval College in January 1961. His early training included service in HMA Ships ANZAC, VAMPIRE and MELBOURNE which included involvement in the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia, and postings to the UK, to the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and HMS EXCELLENY for Sub-Lieutenant's courses.

Admiral Barrie has served at sea as commissioning crew HMAS BRISBANE (1967-69), which included a tour of duty in Vietnam, Commanding Officer HMAS BUCCANEER (1969-70), Operations and Navigating Officer HMAS EASTBOURNE (1971-72), HMAS PERTH (1973-75) and HMAS DUCHESS (1976) where he had additional responsibility as the Training Officer. He has also served as Executive Officer in HMAS VAMPIRE (1980) and later as Commanding Officer HMAS STUART which was recommissioned into service on 29 July 1983 following their modernization, and in January 1984 became the first destroyer to be home ported in Western Australia.

Ashore Admiral Barrie has qualified as a navigation sub-specialist through the UK Long N (1970-71) and Advanced N Courses (1975). In addition, he has received qualifications from the Australian Army Staff

College Queenscliff (1977); the Joint Services Staff College (1980); the RAN Staff College, where he served as Directing Staff (1981-82); and the International Fellows Program component of the National Defence University, Washington DC in the United States of America (1986-87). He has held also the positions of Director, RAN Tactical School (1985-86), Force Development Planning Staff (1987-89) and served on Diplomatic posting as Defence Adviser, New Delhi, India (1990-91), and afterwards Director RAN Surface Warware School and Commanding Officer HMAS WATSON (1991-92). After this, he served as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (1995-96). Prior to his promotion to Admiral and assuming his current appoinment on 4 July 1998, he served as
Vice Chief of the Defence Force since March 1997.

Through part-time study Admiral Barrie obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a special focus on International Relations and Politics in 1983 and was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree in 1996, by Deakin University. Admiral Barrie is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

Admiral Barrie has active interests in strategy, war games, and personal computing as well as enjoying music (opera in particular), his piano, and playing golf and tennis at a social level. Admiral Barrie and his wife Maxine live in Canberra. Admiral Barrie has two sons: Duncan aged 22 at work in the computer industry, and Nicholas aged 25 who is also serving as a seaman officer in the Navy (UNTAET Australian National Command Element re visit).

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