A FORMER American airman who left an indelible mark on south Oxfordshire and one of its families has died.

Edward Hoffman served during the Second World War in the US Army Air Force’s 7th Photographic Group (Reconnaissance), stationed at RAF Mount Farm — where the village of Berinsfield now stands – between 1943 and 1945.

But his love affair with the county, and a friendship with a family from neighbouring Dorchester, lasted much longer.

Mr Hoffman, who ran a design firm, created unique war memorials in both Dorchester and Berinsfield, as well as stained-glass windows for Berinsfield’s church.

After battling leukaemia he died aged 90 in Florida last month and was buried with military honours. His wife Jane, who had pneumonia, died aged 82, just 18 hours later.

At their side for six weeks before their deaths were Richard and Caroline Pratt, from Dorchester, who had forged a friendship with the Hoffmans after a chance meeting.

On a visit to Oxfordshire in the early 1970s, Mr Hoffman and his wife bumped into John Pratt, Richard’s father, near Dorchester Abbey and asked where they could go for a cup of tea.

John, 73, said: “I said ‘you can come back to a small English home, you’d be very welcome’. So they came in and we got talking.”

For the next 30 years John and his family, including son Richard and daughter-in-law Caroline, visited or hosted the Hoffmans once a year.

Mr Hoffman’s legacies are his war memorials, which the Pratts helped him construct.

In the grounds of Dorchester Abbey, Mr Hoffman placed a chunk of the original Mount Farm runway, inscribed with a tribute to his fellow servicemen.

The distinctive monument in Wimblestraw Road, Berinsfield, was unveiled in 1985 and features the propeller from a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the type of plane the USAAF flew from Mount Farm.

Richard Pratt said: “When we were in Berinsfield putting it together, some children came over and Ed said ‘you look after this, it’s part of your history’, and it’s never been damaged to this day.”