POPULAR DJ and gifted mathematician Bazel John Harris from Wheatley has died at the age of 87.

A lover of music, Mr Harris was well-known as “DJ Baz” for 35 years in his home village.

Bazel John Harris was born on April 8 1928 in Long Wittenham to farmer Fred Harris and housewife Ellen.

He was the third of four siblings, Leileen, Cecil, and Doris who have all now passed away.

Mr Harris grew up in Long Wittenham and then moved to Wheatley in 1943.

At the age of 15 he won a scholarship to study maths in Oxford, but turned it down as his parents needed his support during the war. Despite this, he used to say he never regretted his decision and went on to mark exam papers in local Oxford schools for many years.

He decided to leave school to work on Alden Farm in Wheatley. In his early 20s Mr Harris left the farm to drive HGV lorries for Tuckwells and Jack Hanks. In 1956 he moved to Morris Motors to be a test driver, working at the plant for 28 years. In the early 1980s he moved on to work on the production line at King Harry Foods in Thame and during the night as a caretaker at Lady Spencer Churchill College, now Oxford Brookes University's Wheatley campus.

Obituaries

From 1986 until he retired in 1993, he worked full-time at the college.

In April 1949 Mr Harris met his future wife Mary Fitzgerald on a blind date.

They married on February 3, 1951, at St Aloysius Catholic Church on Woodstock Road.

After marrying, the couple lived in Jericho, Oxford for their first year as newlyweds in 1951, and then Wheatley from 1952 where they stayed for the rest of their lives.

Mr Harris was father to six daughters; Anne born in 1953, Dodie in 1956, Zena in 1958, Yvonne in 1960, and Shirley in 1962.

Mr and Mrs Harris also had Jeanette in 1965, who was stillborn.

Mr Harris played for Morris Motors darts club and in various pub teams in Wheatley. He also loved boxing and wrestling. His big love was his mobile disco, Felix Disco, which he ran for 35 years.

Beginning in 1972, he would play at weddings, parties and events in the Wheatley area.

Mr Harris’s daughter Yvonne met her husband Paul at one of her dad’s discos in 1977 and their son, Carl, met his wife Joanna at another disco in 2003.

Yvonne said it was as if her dad had brought them all together.

He decided to put an end to the disco when his wife became ill.

Mr Harris also started a holiday club, which anyone in the surrounding villages could join.

He used to collect money monthly and then book a coach holiday and a big group would all travel abroad. He died on May 20 after suffering a heart attack, leaving behind five daughters, 15 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.