Hines was born in Liverpool, England. He tried unsuccessfully to join the British Army at 14, managed to join the British Navy 2 years later and was discharged after a year due to a bad bout of malaria.
He made his way to Australia via a stint working as a guide for British troops in the Boer War and a short time in New Zealand.
When WW1 broke out he was in his 40's but dropped his age to 28 in order to enlist in the AIF.
From Australians at War (
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Hines had the happy knack of being able to wreck German pill boxes which threatened Australian troops using his favourite Mills bombs (grenades).
On top of that, he became a master at souveniring, looting all sorts of items from dead and captured Germans and returning triumphant to the Australian lines. So good was he that he became known as the "Souvenir King".
It was a photograph showing Barney Hines squatting among a pile of souvenirs after the Battle of Polygon Wood in France in 1917 that originally infuriated the Kaiser and brought about his demand to capture the "Australian Barbarian" dead or alive. The photograph was passed among Australians and eventually a copy fell into the hands of the Germans.
Barney was not at all fazed by his notoriety and continued to collect great supplies of badges, helmets, guns, watches and other jewellery while maintaining his amazing attacks on German troops. He was reputed to have killed more Germans than any other soldier in the AIF.
On one occasion he reached a German pill box and danced on the roof taunting the occupants to come out. When nothing happened he lobbed a couple of Mills bombs through the gun openings, killing some and forcing the rest, about 63 of them, to come out with raised arms. He duly collected his souvenirs from them and herded them back to the Australian lines.
Among his more unusual souvenirs were a grand piano, which he managed to keep for several days, a grand father clock which was eventually blown up by his own men because it attracted shell fire from the German lines whenever it chimed, a barrel of Bass ale, which he shared with his comrades, and several suitcases full of banknotes from the bank at Amiens. He was arrested by British military police but caused so much bother he was returned to his unit.
There are numerous websites with his story. Fifty Australians
(
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