JOY Flint, who has died aged 95, prepared droves of potential students for their Oxford University entrance examinations.

The former chief examiner in English studied at the university herself, attending St Anne's College either side of working for the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War.

She made many lifelong friends in the city and purchased a flat in north Oxford, allowing her to spend plenty of time in Oxfordshire.

Joyce 'Joy' Parker was born in Batley, near Leeds, in February 1923 to George and Doris Parker.

She was proud of her Yorkshire background and retained a strong but quiet sense of justice throughout her life.

In her early teens, Joy moved to Birmingham and won a scholarship to King Edward’s School, but the Second World War broke out when she was 16 and she was evacuated to Cheltenham.

In October 1942, the teenager moved to Oxford to read for a BA in English Language and Literature at St Anne's.

This was cut short, as the regulations of the Registration for Employment Order meant she needed to undertake war work after a year of her studies.

In 1943, Ms Parker joined the Wrens (the Women’s Royal Naval Service), where she first worked mending and servicing aircraft, and then as a plotter in Liverpool, recording the movement of shipping and occasionally aircraft.

This gave her several memories, from washing up Christmas dinner for a thousand people in December 1943, to attending a wild party thrown by the Dutch navy.

That year also proved memorable as Ms Parker met her future husband, Ray Flint, at a 'hop' at Birmingham student union.

She was eventually demobilised in April 1946 and re-joined St Anne’s for the summer term on a scholarship.

Her and Ray remained together and the couple married on September 9, 1947.

The pair left Oxford for Kew, south west London, at the beginning of the 1950s, before moving to Wimbledon and then Naworth Castle, in Cumberland.

Their only daughter, Kate, was born in 1954 and attended St Anne's herself in the 1970s.

After a short period of graduate work, Mrs Flint became an examiner of O and A level English, eventually becoming chief examiner in English for the Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations.

She regularly prepared students for Oxford and Cambridge University entrance examinations, and published an edition of poems by the author Thomas Hood for Carcanet Press.

Her work as an examiner saw her return to the city regularly and Mrs Flint spent more time in Oxford as she took on more senior levels of responsibility.

In the late 1970s, Mrs Flint purchased a flat in Norham End, on Norham Road, north Oxford.

This offered wonderful views over the Dragon School playing fields to the River Cherwell.

Mrs Flint maintained long-standing friendships with several people in Oxford and the city always retained a special place in her heart.

After suffering a heart attack in 1997, Mrs Flint scaled back her activity, but still found plenty to enjoy.

Her hobbies included reading, travelling across the country with Ray and enjoying the company of her cats Sam, Hal and Simba.

She was also an avid watcher of snooker, Inspector Morse and the Antiques Road Show and spent hours researching family history.

In 2011, Mrs Flint was appointed a Johnson Honorary Fellow by the governing body at St Anne’s, in recognition of her generous support of the college.

She passed away on November 28 and is survived by her husband Ray, a retired commercial director, and daughter Kate, a professor of art history and English at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her funeral took place at Putney Vale Crematorium, west London, on Friday.