JOHN Duffield, who was well known in Marcham, died just two days after his 99th birthday.

Dr Duffield passed away at his home in Church Street on February 13. The GP, who formerly lived in Marcham Park, now Denman College, has left behind three children — Gervase, who is a Vale of the White Horse district councillor, leading London financier John, and Mary Jean, who is the wife of a retired general.

Dr Duffield was educated at Malvern School and graduated in Zoology from St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. He won a post-graduate commonwealth fellowship to Chicago University, where he met his first wife Jean Stellman.

During the Second World War, he served as a medical officer.

Gervase Duffield said: “His most alarming adventure was in Convoy HX-84 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in which he was the only doctor among the whole 37 ships.”

After the war, Dr Duffield specialised in psychiatry, becoming a consultant in the Oxford area.

Before and after his formal retirement, Dr Duffield was a specialist medical witness for court trials. Gervase said of his father: “He was keen on nature from his Oxford days, when he went on a university expedition to British Guyana and discovered quite a few insects there previously unknown to science.

“He also built and restored a magnificent garden next to the church in Marcham.”

A date has not yet been set for Dr Duffield’s funeral.