MORE has been revealed about a Woodstock film-maker and photographer whose work is featured in a new exhibition.

Dr Henry Tothill was a Woodstock GP and former town mayor, who had a passion for photography and filmed many of the town’s civic events.

He captured a Blenheim Palace party thrown by Sir Winston Churchill in 1953, the laying of Marlborough School’s foundation stone in 1939 and the Queen’s visit in 1956.

Some of his films are featured in the exhibition at Oxfordshire Museum in Park Street, but little was known about the man behind the lens.

Now his son, Peter Tothill, 84, of Stadhampton, has contacted the Oxford Mail to shed light on his father’s life, after we featured the exhibition last Thursday.

He said his father had been a hardworking doctor, with a genuine passion and love for Woodstock and its people.

Dr Tothill was born in Staines, Middlesex, in 1898, the son of a doctor, and went on to study medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. After setting up a practice in Leigh-on-Sea, near Southend, he moved to Woodstock in 1938 to become junior partner at a medical practice in Harrisons Lane.

After the senior partner, Dr Frank Devan, was called up into the forces at the start of the Second World War, Dr Tothill took charge of the surgery.

He would treat all members of society, from the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace, to a vagrant who lived in a chicken house in Begbroke.

Dr Tothill had married Maud McCurdy before moving to Woodstock. They had two children, Peter, born in 1927, and Ruth, born in 1931.

Peter said: “My father was working at least six days a week. He tried to keep Sundays clear but he had to deal with emergencies.

“He really worked very hard indeed. He was the sort of doctor who had time for everybody.”

Dr Tothill joined Woodstock Borough Council in the late 1950s and became the town’s mayor for a year in 1960.

Peter Tothill said: “He was interested in the community and helping the community, but whether he did it out of a sense of duty or because he enjoyed it, I do not know.”

Dr Tothill’s hobby for his whole life was photography, both still and film, but his son said the passion could prove irritating at times.

He said: “When we were on holiday he would say ‘I had better take a picture of that view’.

“He would examine it from different points and take meter readings of the light, and then half an hour later we would be able to continue our journey.”

Dr Tothill retired in 1963, aged 65, and began to travel to other Woodstocks around the world, particularly in the US, and regularly visited Kenya. He remained a Woodstock resident until his death in 1972.

His son said the new exhibition at Oxfordshire Museum, which runs until December, was a “brilliant” tribute to his father.

Mr Tothill added: “His film will be very important, because in years to come people would not have known about things he captured. I think it’s really important to remember our history.”