The son of the cricketer
Edward Barrett senior, he was born at
Churt in June 1879. He was educated at
Cheltenham College, where he played for and captained the college cricket team, having moderate success in inter-school matches. From there, he attended the
Royal Military College at Sandhurst, graduating into the
Lancashire Fusiliers as a
second lieutenant in February 1899. Shortly after gaining his commission, he served in South Africa in the
Second Boer War, including as part of the
Ladysmith Relief Force, and was slightly wounded at the engagement at Venters Spruit on 20 January 1900, when he had to take the responsibility as
lieutenant, promotion to which was later antedated to the same day. For his participation in the conflict, he gained the
King's South Africa Medal. The battalion stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which formally ended in June 1902 after the
Peace of Vereeniging. Barrett joined other officers and men of the battalion who left
Cape Town on the in October that year, and was stationed at
Aldershot upon his return. He was promoted to
captain in May 1903, and was seconded as a wing officer to the
Malay States Guides the following month. Barrett joined the
Shanghai Municipal Police in 1907, which was responsible for policing the
Shanghai International Settlement and headed the Sikh Branch for many years. He replaced K.J. McEuen as commissioner of police in Shanghai in 1925, with McEuen having been held partly responsible for
The Nanjing Road Incident of May 1925, which resulted in the deaths of protesters and subsequently led to civil unrest. Barrett was himself forced to resign on 1 October 1929, after disputes about police effectiveness and reform. He was later added to the
Special List during the
Second World War. ==Sporting career==