"Mountain" / "Jungly" Barry Thomas Halpin 11/3/1938 - 3/1/1996

Author of Dead Lucky, Duncan MacLaughlin, was unable to find a record of Barry's birth in the Irish (1936 -1940) or English (March 1938) Births registry. This is unusual because Barry's birth certificate was uncovered by the Evening Standard, and later shown on ITV News.

Son of William Halpin, a haulage contractor (van driver who hailed from County Waterford, Ireland) and Eva, whose first husband died, and lived in Hawes Avenue, Clinkham Wood (neighbouring and befriending Beryl Anders). He attended Cowley Green School, 1949 to 1956, in St. Helens where he met Stephen Nixon (now a Edinburgh hospital consultant). He was an active member of St Davids Scout Group. Halpin spent several years in the RAF (Serviceman: 5012619). He was called up for national service on 14 August, 1956, and enlisted with the RAF on 17 September the same year. Ray "Sunshine" Sefton, from Aviemore, was a former colleague of Halpin's in the Kinloss (Northern Ireland) mountain rescue team. His service completed, he attended a teacher training college in York.

On a hiking trip in Scotland in 1957, Halpin met Bruce Scott (from Kirby) who became his best friend. Scott and Halpin used to play as a duo in folk clubs across Merseyside and once visited Halpin's relations in Tipperary, Ireland, busking to earn their travelling costs. Dr Mike Hall said in an e-mail; "I attended St John's College Teachers Training College (York) from 1958 to 1961. On my arrival I was allocated a room in the college next to a Barry T. Halpin. We became quite friendly during my first year and I actually moved into a bedsit with him for the first three months of my second year." His first job was at Merton Bank middle school, St. Helens, where pupils included Barbara Evans, Barbara Bryant and Steve Hill. Former colleagues Joan Vaughn and Irene Smith testified that Halpin then taught at Allanson St Primary School, St. Helens. And Mike Harding (Radio 2 DJ) wrote to The Guardian saying Halpin and Bruce Scott led the Liverpool Rent Strike and slept on his floor. John Baynham, from Cumbria said: "I was a personal friend of Barry, who was in fact Barry Halpin of Carr Mill, St Helens. In 1968 he travelled to India with my brother and his friends Barry Parkinson and Ray Davis, in a Ford Thames minibus." According to Keith Roberts, Barry appeared on one of his albums which came out in 1972.

In 1971, wanderlust set in, and Barry left England for Australia and became headteacher of a school in the Bush near Alice Springs. Fellow busker Tim Hingston met him one night at a folk club called the Stables. "I spent every day with him for a long time, having music lessons in the morning then going to Perth to busk in Hay Street Mall every afternoon. He used to live in a tiny two bedroom rental house in Leederville, [Perth, Australia]. He had no possessions, Barry used to sleep on the mattress on the floor." Maths teacher Dougie McFarlane, from Cockenzie, East Lothian, was a close friend of Barry's in Australia during the 1970s. In 1974 a magazine published an article on Barry, which acquaintance Osmonde Walters kept. In 1975 he made an epic journey to Bombay, India then walked to Xelimri, Goa arriving in February that year. A feat of fitness Barry would have been capable of according to friends. Here he met Cecilia Pereira (see Dead Lucky Chapter 21).

Circumstances dictated his return to Perth in 1976, where this time he stayed for 3 years. Greg Hastings of the popular Perth group Mucky Duck Bush Band said Barry had been a band member between 1975 and 1980 (probably an overestimation). Here he appeared in an Australian Folk Magazine in 1978 and met a German lady called June (who lived in Melbourne), and by 1979 he was back in Goa. "The story was he left with the tax department hot on his heels because he had been collecting the dole and working in the band."

John van Ross, who was also travelling photographed Barry in Goa in 1979. In 1983 he returned to England briefly for a foray to Kendal where he met Tom Walsh. Halpin's former teaching colleague Irene Smith last saw him in 1986 when he was visting St Helens for what she believed was a family funeral. Salesman Adam Cook, 34, met him in 1989. By 1991-1992, intrepid Barry was back in Goa, and None of his Goan friends, mention a Lord Lucan figure coming into contact with Barry. However, he did meet Shelley Lambert who claimed, incredibly, to have also known Lord Lucan from 1972 to 1974. Unfortunately, Shelley is looking a dubious witness, as Lady Lucan has never heard of her. Mark Winch shot off a couple of shots of Barry. In February 1992, Andy Burrows met him, and was subsequently to add that he saw Barry on TV, 2 or 3 years later. Helen Peyton, now 37 and an art lecturer living in the Yorkshire Dales and her husband Nicholas also befriended Barry in 1992. As did David Jordan.

In 1994, Barry visited his sister Rita (and her partner George Commins) in Spain. The last time Bruce Scott (Barry's best friend) saw him was 1995. "He was staying with friends in Macclesfield and asked me to see him there as he was too ill to travel". In fact, one of the friends he was staying with was Mr Christy MacHale.

Before he went back to Goa he said to Bruce Scott that if he died he didn't want his body brought back to Merseyside. He said he wanted his ashes scattered under his favourite banyan tree on Baya Beach. When Halpin died in 1996 of a heart attack and liver cirrhosis, his request was duly met. He left all his possessions, including a ukelele signed by George Formby, to Bruce Scott. Jungle Barry was survived by his only remaining blood relation, his sister Rita. The announcement of Mr Halpin's death in Goa appeared in the St. Helens Reporter in January 1996, as "the dearly loved brother of Rita and Mildred". At the same time, a Goa newspaper carried the death notice.

In April 1996, Barry's German friend June died. In 1998 Barry's sister Rita Jones (nee Halpin) died.

His only surviving relative is his niece Eileen Vincent, a nurse who now lives in North Carolina, America.

There is no evidence in the public domain that Lord Lucan met or knew Barry Halpin.

Apart from the shift during September 2003 from believing "Barry Halpin was Lord Lucan" to "Lord Lucan assumed the identity of Barry Halpin" (with no "I was wrong"), I am suprised by his weighing of the evidence for this (see Canadian Brenan Chamberlain mentioned in the Guardian on the 7/11/04 for example).

Nor does his conclusions make ANY sense with the subtitle of the book "How the establishment conned the world into believing Lord Lucan was Barry Halpin". There is an audacious quote from Sherlock Holmes on the back too. Couldn't he just say "I was wrong"?

There is one piece of evidence in his favour, though it would not appear it has been looked into beyond a cursory acceptance. Amazon USA Book Review by "Simon" of Dead Lucky. Given that "Simon" could be anyone, this single piece of independent coroborration seems tenous to base a new adapted theory on. I would very much like to get in touch with "Simon". Any assistance on that front will be gratefully received. Duncan MacLaughlin also misinterprets burden of proof when he says "prove your Barry Halpin is my Barry Halpin".

Contact the publishers - John Blake

7th September

  BBC Video of Press Conference

  Lord Lucan from Clink - St. Helens Celebrity News - first dismissal from Dr Mike Hall

8th September

  Lord Lucan? It's my friend Barry - Evening Standard - first newspaper dismissal

  CNN - carries the story with a poll but no dismissal

  Christie MacHale - Channel 4 - First TV dismissal?

  The trail of Lord Lucan by Ross Benson - Daily Mail - Long, inconclusive and no dismissal

  Lucan's final riddle - Daily Mail - Andy Burrows dismissal

9th September

  Lord Lucan? No, a tinwhistle loving hippy from St. Helens - The Daily Telegraph

  Lord Lucan? Er, no. It's Barry the banjo player from St Helens - The Guardian

  That's not Lucan - it's my mate Barry! - Norfolk News - Keith Roberts

  Lord Lucan claim dismissed - BBC News Online - John Baynham

  One's a folk singer from St Helens, the other one's a nanny-killing fugitive earl - icLiverpool - Bruce Scott

10th September

  Was Perth the hiding place of Lord Lucan? - The Western Australian - Superior article on Greg Hastings

  Now Lucky's a mucky duck - SMH - Greg Hastings

  Pupils remember Lucan 'lookalike' - icLiverpool - Barbara Bryant, Barbara Evans and Shelia Lyons

12th September

  'Lucan' town link - icLiverpool - Rita Jones (sister)

  Absurd Lucan Link! - St Helens Star - Possibly Broken - Unknown Date !

15th September

  They should be so Lucky - William Hall - The Guardian

17th September

  Shelley Lambert - Norfolk News - Lady Lucan says her family never knew Shelley

20th September

  Why I'm convinced Lucan was no murderer - Norfolk News - Lady Lucan says her family never knew Douglas Willey who sighted Lucan in South Africa