Husband of Tracey Burgess

OCTU and posted to Tonga in 1942 working for the British Consulate.

The following account of of Barbara Burgess (nee Browne) was prepared by Dorothy Gardiner: Barbara Brown married Tracey Burgess in 1955 at St David's Presbyterian Church, Khyber Pass by the Rev. Baragwanath. The couple lived at Matheson's Bay where Tracey built their new home. Tracey died in 1967 and Barbara was the first resident at the Totara Park Village in Warkworth. She spent her last year or so in the Warkworth Hospital. Her mother was an opera singer and her father a journalist. Before the war she had been in Nairobi, Kenya, working with an architectural firm. She returned to New Zealand and worked in a millinery shop in Wellington.

There was a large fathering at Barbara's funeral service in Warkworth Anglican Christ Church. The service was taken by Rev. Judy Vause and Barbara's friend Rev. M. Claque. She was a well liked church member and popular and active in a large number of Warkworth activities.

On her return from Tonga in 1944 she sailed with the 15 Reinforcements to the Middle East. She went to Italy and then London where she worked at Halifax House in The Strand, London with Aucklanders, Grace Mckeown and Lyn Page (Ball). They worked with the War Graves Commission. Barbara returned to New Zealand in 1946 and managed Hurdley's Furniture and Interior Decorating business in the Queen's Arcade, Queen Street. She was a founding member and first president of the Returned Servicewomen's Division (later Branch) and was the first woman to attend an RSA Conference in Wellington after the war.

Later she managed a garden/plant centre on Auckland's North Shore and later worked for the Takapuna Council office. AWMM