The Ampleforth 'Familia' has this year lost one of its elderly Fathers by the death of Dom Wulstan Barnett. It may be said of him that all his life as a youth, a monk, and a Priest, he was of a quiet and retiring nature, owing partly to a certain diffidence in himself and partly to a defect of hearing, the result of an illness of typhus fever when he was but seven years of age. He was not, however, without a genial sense of humour.
He was born at York in 1847, but soon afterwards removed with his parents to Leith, in Scotland. On account of his delicacy of health he was at first kept at home. He was a notably pious boy, as the members of his family agree in testifying. Before he was ten years of age he had learnt his Catechism, and had imbibed a simplicity and fervour of faith that remained characteristic of him all his days. A story survives of how he once disputed with a little Presbyterian of his own age about the existence of Purgatory. 'I can prove to you,' he said, 'that there is such a place, for I have got a picture of it in my room,' and he straightway ran and fetched it.
At ten years of age he went to Ampleforth, whither two of his brothers had already preceded him. He was laborious and painstaking in studies, while in the performance of duties he developed an exactness and even a scrupulosity which he afterwards carried into his monastic and his priestly life.
In 1865 he took the Benedictine habit at Belmont, having among his contemporaries His Eminence Cardinal Gasquet, Abbot Burge and Abbot Cummins, who still happily survive. He was ordained on March 8th, 1874, and very soon proceeded to the work of the mission. He was sent as assistant to Abbot Clifton at Workington in Cumberland, and there he remained for seventeen years. The Abbot was already an elderly man, brought up under conditions differing from those with which a younger generation of monks was acquainted, but it must be said to the credit and virtue of Dom Wulstan that, by his tact and reverential spirit of obedience he brought it about that the two lived and worked together not only in friendliness, but rather as father and son. It was noticeable in after years how faithfully 'Mr' (that was the prefix in those days) Barnett had taken 'Mr Clifton' as his model and had grown into his ways. It was during this Period that, mainly through, Dom Wulstan's industry a chapel was opened at Harrington, and this has since developed into a separate parish with church and house complete.
In 1891 he was transferred to Warwick Bridge in the beautiful valley of the Eden near Carlisle, as assistant to Dom Stanislaus Giles. On the death of the latter in 1893 he became Rector, and continued as such for twenty-five years. Seeing that the Catholics in Brampton, a quaint old township some four miles east of Warwick Bridge, were seldom able to hear Mass, he rented a small room there which he playfully called the 'Brompton Oratory,' and said Mass in it regularly once a month. This little chapel is still maintained and was generously supported by Robert Ormston Lamb of Hayton House until his death.
For ten years Dom Barnett fulfilled all the duties of his extensive parish by himself, but in 1904 Dom Maurus Bluté came to help him, followed by Dom Jerome Pearson (1907), Dom Hildebrand Dawes (1909), Dom Gerard Blackmore (1914), and in 1917 by Dom Sigebert Cody. By this time he felt the feebleness of old age coming upon him, and he retired to the place of his first missionary efforts at Workington. His departure was the occasion of expressions of much regret on the part of all in the neighbourhood. The Protestants themselves presented him with a watch. He had, however, only a short respite. A fatal illness of the heart came upon him, and on the 7th June, 1922, he died somewhat suddenly in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of St Paul at Musselburgh. The Sisters who nursed him say how greatly they were edified by him and how they felt his loss as a personal one to themselves.
He was buried at Warwick Bridge on Friday, 9th June, close to the graves of his two immediate predecessors, Dom Stanislaus Giles and Dom Wilfrid Ryan, in a spot at the foot of the cemetery cross which he had himself chosen for his last resting place. Fr Abbot of Ampleforth sang the Requiem Mass. Fr Abbot in a short address to the people before giving the Absolutions, gave expression to the feelings of sorrow in the hearts of all present both Catholic and non-Catholic. One Protestant had said that the people of the village felt as if they had lost a father; this being so, with how much more reason could the members of the congregation say sincerely that they had lost a faithful Pastor and friend. May he rest in peace.
THOMAS WULSTAN BARNETT 7 June 1922
1847 20 Jul Born York
1857-65 Educ Ampleforth
1865 28 Sep Received the Habit at Belmont from Prior RB Vaughan 1866
23 Aug Minor Orders Bishop Brown
29 Sep Simply professed Belmont
1869 23 Oct Solemnly professed Ampleforth Prior B Prest
31 Oct Ordained Subdeacon
1873 8 Mar Deacon
1874 8 Mar Priest Bishop Cornthwaite
20 Mar Assistant priest Workington
1891 Apr Assistant Warwick Bridge
Incumbent Warwick Bridge
1918 Aug In retirement at Workington
1921 Mar Musselburgh Convent Home for Invalids
1922 7 Jun Died at Musselburgh Convent Home
9 Jun Buried at Warwick Bridge