TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Army captain who went on to become chief executive of a York mental health unit.

Len Barnard, of Herberts Way, in Heworth, York, died in York Hospital on Christmas Day, aged 84.

He will be particularly remembered in York for the 19 years of his life he dedicated to The Retreat, in Heslington Road.

After 20 years working for the NHS in the south of England, Len was given the top job at The Retreat in the mid-1960s – a position he kept for 19 years until his increasing deafness forced him to take early retirement at the age of 61.

“Len was utterly dedicated to his work and to doing everything he could to keep The Retreat in being,” said his nephew, Mark Barnard.

“It was his life and his main interest.

“His idea of a day off was one in which he only went into work for long enough to find out what that day’s problems were.

“He could then spend the rest of the day thinking about what he would need to do tomorrow.”

Len and his late wife Mildred, whom he married in 1949, lived on The Retreat site for 19 years while Len worked for the organisation.

Mark said: “Those who worked with him remember a man who was as careful with The Retreat’s money as his own, a man who listened to people carefully and took advice before making his own measured assessment of a situation.

“They also remember him as a man who took the trouble to know everyone, patients and staff alike, and who looked after people – offering them a listening ear and the opportunity to talk things through when they needed it.”

Len was born on July 24, 1924, in East Sussex – the son of a railway worker. At the age of 15 he got a junior job in the office of the East Sussex County Asylum, before being called up to join the Army during the Second World War.

It was while he was training at Aldershot that he met Mildred, who was serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and they kept in touch while Len was posted to India. Len remained in India during the difficult post-war period leading to independence and partition, before returning home to his job at the East Sussex Asylum. He worked up the career ladder in the NHS and in the early 1960s was appointed secretary of a group of three hospitals in Oxford before moving to York.

Len’s funeral will be held at Christ Church, in Stockton Lane, York, next Wednesday, at 10.45am. Donations to the RSPCA in lieu of flowers.