TEACHER Ian Smith put Gosford Hill School at Kidlington on the sporting map when he took charge of football, cricket and athletics.

Soon after his arrival, football teams won the Oxfordshire Schools’ Shield and Cup, the first and only time a school achieved the double in the same season.

The school’s sports teams went on to enjoy further success in later years under his guidance.

Mr Smith was so revered as head of maths and sport that seven of his former pupils attended his recent 90th birthday celebration, including two who travelled from Devon and the Isle of Wight.

He was born and grew up in Headington Quarry, and attended Headington Quarry School and Southfield Grammar School in Glanville Road, East Oxford, now Oxford Spires Academy.

He did his National Service in Germany and Ireland, then trained as a teacher at Culham College, near Abingdon.

He and his first wife, Doris, who died of cancer 15 years ago, had a son and three daughters.

He taught at Wheatley Secondary School and moved to Gosford Hill School in 1955, taking charge of maths and sport.

Former pupil Tony Steele recalls: “Ian spotted, nurtured and encouraged sporting talent. Gosford Hill, a school devoid of significant sporting success, quickly became synonymous with producing teams and individuals of considerable ability.”

Mr Smith left Gosford Hill in 1969 to become deputy head of Northway Secondary School and later deputy head of Marston Middle School.

In retirement, he has become well known for taking in and looking after retired racing greyhounds.

He lived in The Moors, Kidlington, during his time at Gosford Hill, but later moved back to Headington. He recently married his long-term partner, Ruth Sylvester.

In his youth, Mr Smith was a keen middle-distance athlete and was one of many spectators at Iffley Road in 1954 to see Roger Bannister break the four-minute barrier for the mile.

He was among the first party of athletes to travel to Oxford’s Dutch twin city of Leiden soon after the twinning link was formed in 1946.

In 1996, as a long-standing member of the Oxford-Leiden Link, he was invited to unveil a stained glass window at Oxford Town Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of the twinning.