JOHN Moullin Davies, whose family lived for many years at Combe, near Woodstock, has died aged 83.

A bequest of £500 from his grandmother made it possible for him to study medicine at St Catherine’s Hall, Oxford, at the age of 16, in 1942.

At Oxford, he met his wife-to-be, Elizabeth Ross, a fellow medical student, who left after one year to work at the code-breaking centre of Bletchley Park.

John and Elizabeth were married at Combe Church in 1950, Elizabeth’s family having settled there after her father retired in 1945 as Deputy Treasurer of the Colony in Kenya.

Dr Davies joined the Royal Naval Medical Service in 1952. His first posting was a tour aboard the Colony Class cruiser, HMS Newfoundland, which saw service in the Korean War and Malayan Emergency.

Dr Davies’ postings included a stint at Gibraltar, where his third child Peter was born in 1957; Hong Kong and Rosyth, Scotland.

The couple’s fourth child, Frances, was born in Scotland in 1964, but brought to Combe for her christening, when the whole family turned out in Ross tartan kilts.

After a two-year posting to Malta, the family moved to Stonesfield to be near Elizabeth’s elderly mother in Combe.

However he continued to serve on ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the Persian Gulf and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Dr Davies retired to Combe, but continued working as a civilian doctor doing GP locums in the Oxford area.

He died of a heart attack on December 20 and was buried at St Lawrence church, Combe, on January 10.