ONE of the founding members of Oxfam’s African aid team has died at the age of 84.

After leaving Radley College in 1944, he enrolled in the Coldstream Guards, serving in Palestine and Egypt, before joing the King’s African Rifles in Uganda.

After being demobilised in 1948, Mr Brierly joined the Colonial Service, serving for 15 years in Northern Nigeria and on secondment to the Foreign Service in Senegal.

His experience made him an ideal candidate to set up Oxfam’s first West and Equatorial African field office in Lagos early in 1966.

In May 1967, the Nigerian civil war broke out and Mr Brierly moved on to explore the Sahara and work in Morocco before returning to Oxfam in 1973 as field director in Saigon, Vietnam.

The office closed shortly before the city fell to the North Vietnamese.

In April 1975, he became field director for East Africa, based in Ethiopia, before taking the portfolio for Kenya, Sudan and Somalia.

He spent his final years with Oxfam based in Oxford, but undertook troubleshooting relief missions to Vietnam, Zaire and Uganda.

Oxfam spokesman Maggie Black said: “Tim belonged to that special cadre of Oxfam’s early overseas staff who by their early 20s had already seen and done things more extraordinary than most of us will ever experience.

“He was held in great affection, and his passing will be regretted by his many Oxfam friends.”

Outside work, Mr Brierly enjoyed walking, travelling, photography and bridge.

A life-long bachelor, friends remembered him as notoriously undomesticated, never learning to cook even the simplest meals, and being the worst driver passengers ever travelled with either in Africa or Oxford.

He died on Christmas Eve, having been unwell for some time.