Richard Barrett-Lennard

Sir Thomas Richard Fiennes Barrett-Lennard, 5th Baronet, OBE (12 December 1898 – 28 December 1977) was a British banker who had served as vice-chairman of Norwich Union and Chairman of the East Anglian Trustee Savings Bank.^[1][2]

Life and family

He was born in Brighton on 12 December 1898, the son of Richard Fiennes Barrett-Lennard, 4th Baronet. He entered Clare College, Cambridge in 1919,^[3] obtaining a BA degree. He married Miss Una Kathleen Finora Fitzgerald at Aveley in July, 1922^[4] He was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Essex in October, 1926.^[5] He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father at Horsford manor in September, 1934.^[6]

He worked in the financial services industry, being vice-chairman of Norwich Union, Chairman of the East Anglian Trustee Savings Bank. and a director of other insurance companies In 1950, he was chairman of the appeal committee that raised £35,000 for repairs to Norwich Cathedral.^[7]

He died on 28 Dec. 1977 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his distant cousin, Sir Hugh Barrett-Lennard, 6th Baronet, who was descended from the second son of the first baronet.

Family pictures

Barrett-Lennard owned a number of family pictures which he loaned to various exhibitions, including Fine Paintings from East Anglia^[8] and 18th Century Italy and the Grand Tour.^[9] His paintings were photographed and a list published by the Courtauld Institute of Art.^[10] In 1974 he donated many of these family pictures to Essex County Council, although they remained with the family until 2009.^[11] The collection included around 40 family portraits, some topographical paintings of Belhus and a few other works.^[12] A few paintings from the collection are on display in the search room at the Essex Record Office, including a portrait of the 5th Baronet. In 1922, the collection included portraits of Charles I and Catherine Mildmay, both by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen, but these are not included in the Essex Record Offic List.^[13]

The most valuable item in the collection was a portrait of Thomas Barrett-Lennard, 17th Lord Dacre, with his wife and daughter by Pompeo Batoni which was valued at £2.5m.^[14] The Batoni portrait and many other works in the collection were discussed in a privately published family history.^[15]

Honours

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1950)^[16]
• Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John (1955)^[17]

References

1. ↑ The Times, Saturday, 31 Dec 1977; pg. 14; Issue 60199; col F Sir Richard Barrett-Lennard
2. ↑ ‘LENNARD, Sir (Thomas) Richard (Fiennes) Barrett-’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 19 June 2013
3. ↑ Clare College obituaries
4. ↑ Chelmsford Chronicle, 28 July 1922
5. ↑ Chelmsford Chronicle, 22 October 1926
6. ↑ Chelmsford Chronicle, 14 September 1934
7. ↑ Atherton, Ian, ed. (1996). Norwich Cathedral: Church, City, and Diocese, 1096-1996. Hambledon Press. p. 752. 
8. ↑ The Burlington Magazine , Vol. 106, No. 737 (Aug., 1964), pp. 380+389-390
9. ↑ The Burlington Magazine , Vol. 100, No. 666 (Sep., 1958), pp. 316+318-319
10. ↑ Horsford Manor, Sir Richard Barrett-Lennard Collection. Courtauld Institute of Art, London. 1955. 
11. ↑ Brentwood Gazette
12. ↑ Essex Record Office catalogue
13. ↑ Finberg, Alexander J, A Chronoligical List of Paintings by Cornelius Johnson, Walpole Society, Volume 10, 1922
14. ↑ A Batoni in Storage
15. ↑ Barrett-Lennard, Thomas (1908). An Account of the Families of Lennard and Barrett, compiled largely from original documents. Private Circulation. 
16. ↑ London Gazette
17. ↑ London Gazette