Archibald Robert Barrett was an Adelaide born state team player who served in a heavy artillery battery (howitzers) during the First World War. Although he seemed to have a connection with rural South Australia – his family lived at Warooka on the southern tip of the Yorke Peninsula – he was recorded playing for South Adelaide in 1911 and for the Adelaide club from 1913 to 1915. The city club won two Cambridge Cups during this period. He also played three times for the SA state team: in one of these matches, against Broken Hill at Kensington Oval in 1914, a tackle on Barrett by Broken Hill defender Reynolds resulted in the visiting player being carried off with a broken leg.
Archie Barrett initially signed up for Home Service in February 1916, but transferred to the 24th Field Artillery Brigade in July. After the usual lengthy training period at Maribyrnong, Barrett arrived in England in early 1917. Despite several periods of illness, he was serving at the Front in 1918 when the war ended. Returned to Australia, he was discharged in Adelaide on 21 June 1919 – and married Hilda Heinrich at Wiltunga less than three weeks later.
Barrett had stated that he was a Methodist on his enlistment papers, but after the war he became a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, and he and his wife spent many years in the Solomon Islands as missionaries, even returning there after World War II. Hilda Barrett died at Angaston in 1955 and Archie later married Jessie Laird. He died in WA in 1968.
 Although he was a renowned player (Harold Pearce mentioned him in 1923 whilst reminiscing to a journalist about great pre-war players), Barrett’s early footballing career is a bit of a mystery. Born in 1885, he was 26 when first recorded as playing in Adelaide. He was educated at Avondale Christian Workers’ College in NSW (now Avondale University), so it is possible he was introduced to soccer there. It was perhaps fortunate for SA soccer that he was not a Seventh Day Adventist before the war – all games were played on Saturdays!