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Father Sir Hugh Dacre Barrett-Lennard, 6th Baronet (27 June 1917 – 21 June 2007) was a Catholic priest who previously served in the army and finished his army career as a Captain having been mentioned in dispatches.

Career

At the beginning of the second World War Hugh Barrett-Lennard enlisted as a private in the London Scottish Regiment. He transferred to the Essex Regiment.

After the Essex Regiment received severe casualties on 11/12th June 1944, Father Hugh took over the post of Battalion Intelligence Officer until August 1944. Very early one morning at the time of the fighting at Falaise, he was responsible for a reconnaissance far into German lines in a jeep with only a driver for support. He was thus able to establish for the Brigade and 49th Division that the Germans had swiftly retreated and advance was possible.

On return his driver is reputed to have told all and sundry that Lt. Barrett-Lennard was bonkers! At the extent of their patrol they had parleyed with a local Mayor while on the other side of the Mairie the Germans packed up and left. When challenged as to his identity by the Maire, Lt. Barrett-Lennard replied “Je suis L’Armee Britannique!”

He finished his army career as a Captain and had been mentioned in dispatches. Two weeks prior to his demobilisation, he was in Berlin. With the war over Father Hugh established a school for soldiers preparing men for their demob and return to civilian life.

He was ordained as a Catholic priest in Rome in 1950. After his ordination he became a parish priest at the London Oratory.

Father Hugh succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of the 5th baronet, Sir Richard Fiennes Barrett-Lennard, at Swallowfield Park, Reading on 28th December 1977.

Father Hugh helped at the Mass said in Bayeux Cathedral for the commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of D-Day in 1994. He also addressed the congregation and unveiled a Plaque near the Cathedral entrance to the Soldiers of 56th Independent Infantry Brigade, 2nd Battalions South Wales Borderers, Essex and Gloucester Regiments, who landed on Gold Beach on 6th June 1944 and pushed inland to secure the right flank of the British Army by that evening, liberating Bayeux the following day .

A colleague said of him that he shared "St Philip's eccentricity, especially about dress and those type of things. His family had a certain reputation for a lack of grandeur". He apparently inherited this from his eccentric great grandfather, Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard who wore very old and shabby clothing and had been mistakenly apprehended by the police as a miscreant and also assumed to be a servant when he opened the park gates to a carriage for which he received a tip.

Father Hugh died on 21st June 2007, a few days before his ninetieth birthday and a requiem mass was held at Brompton Oratory on 3rd July.

Notes

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

1. Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage
2. Father Sir Hugh Dacre Barrett-Lennard in Panorama, the Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, Number 44, 2006
3. http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-your-charity.html
4. reported on the Thurrock Local History Society web site (http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/historysoc/fatherh.htm)

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