Tony Barnett, a science teacher and inveterate traveller who began his adventures on the hippy trail in 1962, has died aged 81. He fell ill with pneumonia while travelling in Sri Lanka and died shortly afterwards.
Early Life and Education
Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, to Daniel, a commercial artist, and Nancy (nee Gates), a housewife, Tony grew up in Hampstead, north London. He attended William Ellis grammar school, where he became friends with the author of this obituary. As a teenager, he joined the Aldermaston marches and became a regular at Hampstead Young Socialists meetings, as well as at the local Witch's Cauldron coffee bar, a gathering place for aspiring bohemians.
Travel Adventures
Travel was his great passion. In 1962 and again in 1963 he journeyed to Morocco in search of adventure. Further long trips took him through Istanbul, Beirut, Lebanon and, in 1965, overland to Afghanistan, where a cholera outbreak trapped him until he was repatriated via the British embassy. He later rode his motorcycle to Morocco, drove across the US, and made diving trips to the Red Sea, Indonesia and the Maldives. Even in later life, he was still travelling for months at a time through India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Laos with a kit bag weighing less than 10kg.
Teaching Career
A science teacher by trade, Tony taught in various London schools across a 30-year career, travelling in the long holidays and in extended periods between jobs. Trained at St Mark and St John's College, Chelsea, he later took an Open University degree in physics and taught in a number of London schools, including at Hampstead comprehensive, where he taught alongside the author. After retirement he worked as a science technician at King's College London, helping to train young teachers.
Personal Struggles and Triumphs
His life was marked by stark contradictions and formidable willpower. He experimented with opiates in the 60s and battled heroin addiction for more than a decade, yet never allowed it to interfere with his teaching. In the mid-70s he quit abruptly, and decades later, when warned by doctors about his drinking, he gave up alcohol just as dramatically, never touching a drop for the last 20 years of his life. He joined the Emin, a mystical cult, in the 70s, but abandoned it when he grew cynical about its organisers.
Family and Legacy
He married Maggie Gearson in 1969, and they had a son, Julius, before Maggie's death from an accidental methadone overdose in 1971. In addition, Tony fathered a daughter, Jessica, as a sperm donor to two friends who wanted a child, and he kept in contact with her throughout his life. He is survived by Julius and Jessica. To his friends Tony seemed indestructible – a force of nature whose optimism, humour and loyalty enriched countless lives.
