Painter, draughtsman and teacher, brother of the sculptor Oliver O’Connor Barrett, born and lived in Colchester, Essex. He studied at Central School of Arts and Crafts, teachers including Bernard Meninsky, John Farleigh and William Roberts, 1936–40. Began teaching in 1947, from 1968 being tutor at Royal Academy Schools. As an artist Barrett strove “to make works which are well made and without false feeling”. Barrett’s pictures, using a muted palette, were sometimes completed over several years, could be subject to reworking and were notable for the meticulous placing of objects and people within them. Barrett was a member of Colchester Art Society and took part in its Fifty Years Anniversary Exhibition at Chappel Galleries, Chappel, in 1996.