  Thursday 19 December 2013  Fr Sir Hugh Barrett-Lennard, Bt
Father Sir Hugh Barrett-Lennard, 6th Bt, who has died aged 89,
was a greatly admired if highly eccentric priest of the London
Oratory.  Pursuing a busy and eclectic apostolate in
Knightsbridge, he was a dedicated parish visitor, so unconcerned
about his appearance that he sometimes wore odd shoes; thus
attired he would knock firmly on the doors of rich and poor
alike.  He visited the Household Cavalry, and served as a
chaplain to both the local St Thomas More school and the St
Christopher cycling club, though his cassock occasionally became
tangled in a bicycle wheel and had to be cut free. For a time
(until his absentmindedness with keys led to concerns about
security) he acted as an unofficial chaplain at Wormwood Scrubs
prison, where his masses were said to be served by two prisoners
known as Hammer and Sickle. He enjoyed recalling how he had once
been served at Benediction by a thurifer who was a murderer and
by two acolytes who had been convic