He was born in Greymouth, New Zealand, on 16 June 1936 and received an education of sorts with the Marist Brothers, leaving school at 15 1/2 years of age.
He was encouraged by the editor George Gaffney and, following his interest and involvement as a player in the sport, became the paper's cricket writer.
Barrow covered local games played at weekends and wrote his reports on Sunday evenings.
In 2006 he won the non-fiction section of the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards for his book Unlocking History's Secrets.
[3] Barrow was awarded an OAM in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to local history, and the community of the Australian Capital Territory".