John Alexander Barrie more commonly known as Scotch Ian Barrie was an integral member of the firm, serving as Ronnie Kray's right-hand man. He was present at the murder of George Cornell at The Blind Beggar, where he fired three shots into the ceiling.
Barrie served as a soldier in the marines, and had a scar from a tank fire on his face. Known as the Firm's man of mystery, he has kept a remarkably low profile since serving his time in prison after 1980, allegedly now living in Nottingham. Mel Raido portrayed him in Legend (2015).
History
Barrie had been born in Bristol in 1937, but the family had moved to Edinburgh when he was a few months old. He had quite a colourful past: he spent a year employed as a seaman with a whaling company in the Antarctic, and from 1958 to 1961 had served in the Royal Scots Greys. It was during this time that Barrie had an accident when his tank caught fire when it was being serviced, resulting in burns on the right side of his face, his ear, and around the right hand and wrist. Several months of treatment followed at Catterick Military Hospital, leaving Barrie with visible scarring, but as Jack Dickson would recall, “this didn’t stop women finding him attractive... he looked tough and we got on well together. He could obviously handle himself.”
Barrie had also been thinking of moving to London and so the pair took their first steps into the great metropolis together, first taking accommodation in the somewhat seedy King’s Cross area, a popular place for first-time Irish and Scottish migrants to settle. It wasn’t all straightforward, as on 18 June 1964, Barrie was charged with ‘wandering abroad’, essentially vagrancy, and was given a conditional discharge for a month. Unimpressed by the general grime of the district they then moved on to Stoke Newington, not a major improvement, but as its once-impressive houses had now been sublet as bedsits (many on easy terms), they were quickly able to find a place to stay in return for working as window cleaners. It was during this time that they heard from a colleague about a card club in Brick Lane in the heart of the East End.
The Krays
Reggie Kray was working hard at this part of their business and by the end of 1962, their revenue from this source had doubled. The twins had developed such a reputation that often club owners approached them first, seeking their guarantee of cover. Soon, as well as the East End, the Firm was protecting clubs in Shepherd's Market, Mayfair, Soho, Chelsea and Knightsbridge. They had a seemingly endless list of these businesses paying tribute to them. Benny's in Commercial Road; Dodgers in Brick Lane; in Whitechapel, the Green Dragon and next door to this The Little Dragon; The Two Aces; in Soho the Gigi Club, The New Life and The New Mill. The list went on and on. Every Friday, members of The Firm, Albert Donoghue, Ronnie Hart, Jack Dickson and Ian Barrie would make the rounds, collecting the cash for the twins. It was known as "the milk round." Barrie, aged thirty-one at the time, was found guilty for the murder of George Cornell and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation to serve at least 20 years