| NAME: Arnold Ezra Barraclough |
NICKNAME: — |
SERVICE NUMBER: 946741 |
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| HOME OF RECORD: Topeka, KS |
NEXT OF KIN: Wife, Mrs. Dorothy Barraclough |
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| DATE OF BIRTH: 12/15/1917 |
SERVICE DATES: 1944 – 1945 |
DATE OF DEATH: 6/15/1988 |
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| CAMPAIGN | UNIT | MOS | RATE | RESULT | |||
| Iwo Jima | B/1/24 | 521 | PFC | WIA | |||
| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS: Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK: Private First Class |
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Arnold Barraclough was born in Kansas in 1917, and was raised in Topeka by Jesse and Iva Barraclough. When his father died in 1931, Arnold left school (having attained the eighth grade) and began working. He was employed as a laborer when he married Dorothy Beckley in 1936; as the 1930s became the 1940s, Arnold found a better job at Topeka’s Beatrice Creamery, while Dorothy raised their two children, Arnold Junior and John.
Barraclough was working as a cabbie when he received his draft notice in the early spring of 1944. He reported to MCRD San Diego for boot camp, then had additional training at Camp Elliott and Camp Pendleton before being assigned to a replacement draft bound for Hawaii. The Fourth Marine Division was just returning from the exhausting Marianas campaign, and Barraclough was one of the green Marines assigned to Company B, 24th Marines. He was promoted to Private First Class on October 26 – as Barraclough’s 26 years made him an “old man” this was likely due more to age than experience – and trained with his new comrades for the next invasion.
In the end, many months of training had a small payoff for Arnold Barraclough. He landed on Iwo Jima in the evening of February 19, 1945, and the next day was back aboard a transport (the USS Lowndes) receiving treatment for wounds. Still, he had been lucky. While Arnold waited aboard the ship to return to a hospital in Hawaii, his older brother Seth – a corporal with the Army’s 148th Field Artillery battalion – was killed in action on New Guinea.
After a spell at Navy Hospital #128, PFC Barraclough returned to Company B as a rifleman. For the rest of the summer, he trained in anticipation of the invasion of Japan, but the war ended before he saw further combat.
Following his discharge in late 1945, Barraclough returned to Topeka. His marriage to Dorothy fell apart within a few years, and Arnold remarried to Viola Dutro in 1948. He abandoned his career as a cabbie to work for the newly established Winter Veterans Administration Hospital, which would become a pre-eminent facility for those suffering from mental illness.
Arnold Barraclough died in Kansas in 1988. His resting place is unknown.