Andrew William "Nicky" Barr, (10 December 1915 – 12 June 2006) was a member of the Australian national rugby union team, who became a fighter ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was credited with 12 aerial victories, all scored flying the Curtiss P-40 fighter. Born in New Zealand, Barr was raised in Victoria and first represented the state in rugby in 1936. Selected to play for Australia in the United Kingdom in 1939, he had just arrived in England when the tour was cancelled following the outbreak of war. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron in September 1941. The squadron's highest-scoring ace, he attained his first three victories in the P-40 Tomahawk and the remainder in the P-40 Kittyhawk.
Barr's achievements as a combat pilot earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Shortly after taking command of No. 3 Squadron in May 1942, he was shot down and captured by Axis forces, and incarcerated in Italy. He escaped and assisted other Allied fugitives to safety, receiving for his efforts the Military Cross, a rare honour for an RAAF pilot. Repatriated to England, he saw action during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 before returning to Australia as chief instructor with No. 2 Operational Training Unit. After the war he became a company director, and rejoined the RAAF as an active reserve officer from 1951 to 1953. From the early 1960s he was heavily involved in the oilseed industry, for which he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1983. He died in 2006, aged 90.
Early career
Andrew Barr was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 10 December 1915; he had a twin brother, Jack. The family moved to Australia when the boys were six. Growing up in Melbourne, Andrew attended Kew Public School and played Australian rules football. He was also the Victorian Schoolboys' 100 yards athletics champion three years in succession, from 1926 to 1928. In 1931, aged fifteen, he began his association with the Lord Somers Camp and Power House social and sporting organisations located at Western Port. After leaving school, Barr studied construction at Swinburne Technical College, but later took a diploma course in accountancy and made it his profession. He started playing rugby union in 1935 through a friend in the Power House club. Weighing and just under tall, Barr gained selection for Victoria as a hooker the following year. In 1939, he was chosen to play in the United Kingdom with the Australian national team, the Wallabies. The tour was cancelled less than a day after the team arrived in the UK on 2 September, due to the outbreak of World War II. Keen to serve as a fighter pilot, Barr initially tried to enlist in the Royal Air Force, but withdrew his application when told that it was unlikely he would fly anytime in the near future, and that he could expect only administrative duties in the interim.
Returning to Australia on the RMS Strathaird, Barr joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an air cadet on 4 March 1940. After undergoing instruction on Tiger Moths at No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School, Essendon, and on Hawker Demons and Avro Ansons at No. 1 Service Flying Training School, Point Cook, he was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 September. He gained a reputation as something of a rebel during training, and became forever known as "Nicky", for "Old Nick", or the Devil. In his quest to gain assignment as a fighter pilot, he had deliberately aimed poorly during bombing practice, a stratagem also adopted by at least two of his fellow students. By November 1940, he had been posted to No. 23 (City of Brisbane) Squadron, flying CAC Wirraways on patrol off the Queensland coast. The aircraft was, according to Barr, "our front line fighter in those days, but it didn't take too long to realise that the capacity of the Wirraway, compared with the types of planes that we were going to encounter, left much to be desired". Though his duties frustrated him somewhat, Barr was grateful to have this extensive flight experience under his belt when he eventually saw combat. While based in Queensland, he served as honorary aide-de-camp to the Governor, Sir Leslie Wilson, and also captained the RAAF rugby union team. He was promoted to flying officer on 24 March 1941.