Guy Picarda was a barrister who practised at the French, English and Irish bars, a former member of the Council of the Huguenot Society, and the founder and for many years chairman of the Anglo-Belarusian Society. He had a special interest in the choral music of Eastern Europe, and it would be no exaggeration to say that he effectively rediscovered Belarusian church music traditions for the Belarusians.

Guy Reginald Pierre Picarda was born in 1931 in North London to parents of French-Breton and Anglo-Irish background. His fatherwas avocat at the Court of Appeal in Paris and a Barrister of the Middle Temple in London. His mother served in the 1920s on the Interallied Rhineland High Commission.

Having been educated at schools in England and France, Picarda commenced his legal studies at the University of Grenoble in 1951 and continued them at Oxford, Paris and the London School of Economics. Periods of pupillage were spent in both London and Paris.

He was called to the Bar in 1959. Two years later he became an avocat at the Court of Appeal in Paris, and in 1977 Barrister at Law in the King’s Inns, Dublin. His practice centred on the family chambers in London and Paris. His international expertise was recognised by several appointments and co-options, including membership of the Overseas Relations Committee of the Bar Council from 1969 to 1980.

His French heritage naturally led Picarda to membership of the Huguenot Society of London, and to the presidency of the Union des Français de Grande Bretagne from 1962 to 1972.

Picarda’s musical interests had developed during his studies in Oxford and Paris, where he sang in the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church. At Oxford he had been Secretary of the university branch of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR.

His growing interest in the countries of Eastern Europe, as well as in their church music, eventually brought him into contact with a young eastern rite Catholic priest from Belarus, Fr Sipovich (later a Bishop). Belarus, a region of mixed cultural heritage — Orthodox, Roman Catholic, eastern rite Catholic, Jewish and Tatar — exerted a powerful attraction.

Belarus was then, and to some extent remains, a terra incognita. In order to make the area better known, Picarda, along with Auberon Herbert, founded the Anglo-Belarusian Society in 1954.

In regular issues of his Belarusian Chronicle, Picarda continued until very recently to write about historical events and figures linking the UK and Belarus. From its inception in 1971 Picarda was a member, and for many years, secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Belarusian Library and Museum in Finchley.

Retirement from legal practice in 1991 brought him more time to devote to the study of church music from Belarus. He participated in several international conferences and joined the adjudication panel of the Festival of Orthodox Church music in Hajnówka (Poland) and the Festival of Church Music held annually in the eastern Belarusian city of Mahilou.

He produced several collections of Belarusian folk and church music, many with his own harmonies and translations into English. He became the music librarian of the Belarusian Library, where he looked after an impressive collection of music — manuscript, printed and recorded. He also maintained correspondence with scholars from a number of countries.

Picarda received several awards for services to Belarusian culture: the Medal of the Order of Francis Skaryna (2000); a Gold Medal from the Ministry of Culture of Belarus to mark the tenth anniversary of the Festival in Mahilou in 2003, and, in 2006, the award of a diploma from the UNESCO office in Belarus.

Picarda had a waspish wit and a gift for stimulating conversation over a bottle of wine and excellent food, often prepared by him from what seemed to be the humblest of materials.

In 1964 he married Micheline Wojtal, with whom he had one son. The marriage was annulled and in 1972 he married Susan Fleming, with whom he had two daughters.

Guy Picarda, lawyer and musicologist, was born on July 20, 1931. He died on April 20, 2007, aged 75