Barry Azzopardi
Over the past 58 years Barry Azzopardi has come face to face with drug cartels in deepest America, shared his sleeping bag with snakes and spiders in the Belize jungle, gate crashed a beach wedding in San Pedro and been put in a military jail for climbing over an army fence to see his future wife. Now in his mid (to late) years, Barry has chosen a quieter way of life and spends his hours weeding, mowing lawns and putting up sheds for homeowners in Dartmouth and Kingswear.
Born and raised in Eastbourne, Barry admits he didn’t have a huge amount of money when he was younger. He could often be found feverishly searching the streets for glass lemonade bottles to sell. When he was 16 and was told ‘to get a career’ he didn’t have high aspirations. “Our careers guidance wasn’t up to much to say the least! We were sent out one afternoon and told to come back with a job or at least evidence we had tried to get one. My two mates and I went to the pub opposite the local Territorial Army branch. After a couple of drinks we popped over to the recruitment unit, picked up a few leaflets and filled in some forms – just to look willing!” Barry didn’t think anymore about it until a couple of weeks later when his army start-up pack arrived in the mail! “I didn't realise I had actually signed up! But I thought I’ve got nothing else planned and I could always leave if I hate it - 40 years later I retired from the British Army!”
Barry started his training in Bassingbourn near Cambridge. He moved through the ranks from Private to Corporal (admitting he was the ‘shouty’ type of corporal you see on films, but only when the situation called for it). He travelled around the world to Germany, Denmark, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar: "One of my favourite postings was to Belize in Central America - it all went on there and you had to keep your wits about you. We were based in the jungle and had snakes and spiders as bedfellows.”
He says the mosquitoes were the worst part; often causing nasty infections after laying their eggs under the men’s skin. “We worked with the Special Forces out there and pretended to be the enemy for their training. But we also did drug patrols along the border and we set fire to marijuana fields planted by large-scale drug growers. The fumes released were so strong another set of troops had to come in to carry us out! Back home it was known as the land of dope and glory! It was cut throat out there – people were regularly killed by the drug barons after trespassing on their territory.”
Despite all that Barry says he was having the time of his life. He had money in his back pocket, friends, and was seeing parts of the world he would never have dreamed of visiting. “One night we gate crashed a wedding on the beach in San Pedro. They were actually surprisingly happy to have 100 squaddies turn up! They thought it was a laugh and treated us like royalty. We were mingling with the ‘Mr Bigs’ of Miami - dressed in white suits and drinking rum!”
It wasn’t long after his time in San Pedro that Barry met wife-to-be Dawn back in Blighty at Tidworth Army camp in Wiltshire. Dawn was visiting the NAAFI to see her sister who worked there. One day she bumped into Barry, their eyes meeting over a cup of tea, and they hit it off instantly. She soon secured a job at the camp and lived-in, but this led to the odd misdemeanour on Barry’s part: “Dawn’s room was very close to mine, but it was in the next door camp and there was a big fence dividing us. Instead of going all the way round the side I would climb up and over. Once I got caught and had to go to our military jail (only for a few hours). The couple went on to get married and have two boys, Nick and James, who both went into the army and are now based in Gibraltar.
That wasn’t the end of Barry’s military career though; he did a spell teaching in the Territorial Army in Eastbourne. “I found it hard to fit in as there just isn’t the same atmosphere and discipline as with regular soldiers. I was used to giving an order and the men obeying without hesitation. The TAs are part time and they opt-in and out. You could say ‘I need you Friday night for an exercise’ and they would come back with ‘sorry I’m meeting my girlfriend’. But don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of very dedicated men and women in the TA - I knew one reservist that would run five miles each day to and from the unit and many went to Afghanistan.” After his time with the TA, Barry moved into the MPGS (Military Provost Guard Service) made up of trained men and women who’re responsible for protecting nearly 100 military bases around the UK. He started working in Salisbury, but moved to Dartmouth in 2003 and it was here that he finally settled down. “We moved into a house in Rock Park with other military families. It was great but a little insular. I ran two sections at the college and did a lot of admin - working out people’s shifts etc. But if I ever upset any of the men they told their wives and their wives would give my wife the cold shoulder!”
During his time at BRNC Barry would often go running and one day he passed Bill Hunt who runs a garden business. “He needed to shift a large amount of stone so I offered to help. He couldn’t believe how quickly I moved it all and I told him I like doing outside work, landscaping and gardening. Bill then offered me a job. It was only a few small tasks here and there which I carried out alongside my MPGS job, I’ve never been one to sit still for long so the idea of two jobs never phased me.” Barry soon gave in his notice at the college and set up his own gardening company, which he still has today.
He says it’s his ideal job: “I love being outside, I’ve been outside all my life. I couldn’t stop now. My favourite jobs are ones where someone shows you their garden and you can’t even get from the gate to the front door without scrambling across a jungle of weeds and brambles. I really enjoy transforming it into something beautiful and neat.” Barry looks after around 60 properties in Dartmouth and more in Kingswear. Not all are big jobs - some are simply a matter of mowing the lawn once a week.
He also works with a few estate agents and holiday companies who call on him to clear or tidy gardens or deal with broken guttering. “My favourite part of the job is having a cup of tea in a millionaire’s garden surveying my surroundings and pretending it’s all mine! I have made a lot of friends since moving to Dartmouth. Being in the army is an amazing experience, but it is a pretty rootless existence. Being part of a community is comforting - I can’t walk 100 yards without saying hello to at least 10 people I know and that’s a good feeling.”
First published in By The Dart magazine July 2019