Anthony Barnes obituary

My friend Anthony Barnes, who has died aged 92, was an executive in the soft drinks and chemicals industry until he changed tack to become director of the Redundant Churches Fund, now the Churches Conservation Trust. Later he joined the Norfolk Churches Trust as its secretary, helping to care for and conserve a number of ecclesiastical buildings across the county.

Both with the Trust and later as a volunteer, Anthony rescued a number of Norfolk churches and prevented St Peter Hungate in Norwich from becoming a wine bar. He also wrote dozens of church guides. Although he was a devout Anglican, his work was driven by a fierce conviction that church buildings were as important for non-Christians as for those who attended every Sunday.

Anthony was born in Marylebone in London, the only child of Anne (nee Bond) and her husband, Sir George Barnes, who, as director of BBC Television in 1953, was knighted for his part in the broadcast of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

After Eton college and national service in the Royal Navy, Anthony went to Cambridge University, where he gained a degree in English in 1954. The following year he began working for Schweppes as a factory manager, first at a bottling plant in the Brighton area and then in Hendon, north west London, where he liked to say he had briefly employed Julie Christie as a bottle-washer before she became a star.

He joined ICI in 1965 as an assistant personnel manager, rising to be personnel manager in the paints division and then at company HQ in London. In that role he was later responsible for implementing a major redundancy programme that eliminated many middle management positions – including his own.

He became director of the Redundant Churches Fund in 1984. It was the perfect job for him, as he had nurtured a passion for ecclesiastical buildings since his youth, when he had toured Romanesque churches in France with his parents and their friend John Betjeman.

However, Anthony’s ability to fulfil the role came to a sudden end in 1992 when he had a stroke. Following a gradual recovery and a move to Norwich, he was asked by Billa Harrod, founder of the Norfolk Churches Trust, to become the trust’s secretary. Within a couple of years he had visited all 650 of Norfolk’s churches in order to prioritise where repairs and funding were most needed.

Despite his upbringing, or perhaps because of it, Anthony was a socialist, and for a time served as vice-chair of Norwich Labour party, before leaving the party over its support for the Iraq war.

An attentive friend, excellent cook, generous supporter of local music and food banks, he threw himself into everything he did, and paid his hairdresser with bottles of decent wine.

Anthony was married twice, first to Susan Dempsey, and secondly to Jenny Carey. Both predeceased him, as did a son, Sebastian, from his first marriage. He is survived by two children, Brendan and Sophie, from his first marriage.