Obituary: Fr Anthony Ross

TO YOUR obituary of Father Anthony Ross (by Donald Ross, 27 May), I would like to add my own affectionate recollection of him at many a family Christmas at Spode House (the former retreat centre of the Dominican Hawkesyard Priory) where, both socially and spiritually, he was the life and soul of he party, writes Christine Conlin.

With his white curls and charisma, he was the perfect Father Christmas. When not in disguise, he would resemble a comet with a tail of children clinging to his habit and begging him for 'just one more ghost story'. His dramatic talents also shone in the one-act melodrama which was performed from scratch each year, Once, as the villain in Maria Martin, or the Murder in the Red Barn, he contrived, in the final gallows scene, to hurl himself into the noose and stage his own 'execution'.