James Platt-Barrett[1] (29 June 1838 –2 7 December 1916) was an English teacher for the deaf and an amateur lepidopterist.

He was one of the founding members of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society and taught at the Royal school for deaf and dumb children at Margate for nearly fifty years.

Platt-Barrett may have had a hearing defect in his youth as he was educated at an institution for the deaf and dumb in Yorkshire.

It is thought that he may have been inspired to study butterflies by Charles Baker who was a teacher of deaf children who published a book British Butterflies (1828) illustrated by his students at the Edgbaston Institution.

On December 28, 1908, he narrowly escaped an earthquake in Messina but his daughter-in-law and her child were killed by the collapsing building and specimens and notes from months of collecting were destroyed.