DR Klaus Schiller, pioneer of gastroenterological endos-copy, has died aged 83, following a short illness.

Dr Schiller, one of the last direct links with pre-war Vienna, died at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital on July 9.

He was born in Vienna in 1927, to Walter, a gynaecologist, and Berta, the daughter of a successful industrialist.

Following the invasion by Germany in 1938, his comfortable childhood was interrupted by enforced emigration, as a Jew, with his sister Verena to England.

Within a few days and with hardly a word of English, he found himself at boarding school in Bishop’s Stortford. Klaus’s parents and grandparents soon followed and he was sent to Clifton College, Bristol.

In 1945, he began reading medicine at Queen’s College, Oxford, a city that he loved all his life.

In 1948, he won a scholarship to the London Hospital, completing his clinical training in December 1951.

He was appointed to two house officer posts, and served two years National Service, mostly as a medical specialist. After a clutch of junior positions elsewhere, he returned to London as a registrar.

In 1961, he married Judy Bennett, who had been brought up in Oxford, and he was appointed senior registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1962.

In 1966, Dr Schiller received his Doctorate and, eager to become a consultant, spent a year with Judy and their two young sons, Nick and Adrian, working at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Returning to Oxford, Dr Schiller worked with his mentor and life-long friend, Dr Sidney Truelove.

Dr Truelove had acquired the first flexible fibre-optic gastroscope capable of taking biopsies under direct vision, and together they pioneered its early use.

In 1967, Dr Schiller was appointed consultant physician to St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, where he developed a thriving endoscopy unit.

His interest led him to contact many other aspiring endoscopists and the formation of the British Society for Digestive Endoscopy (BSDE), an influential organisation that campaigned successfully for NHS support.

Meanwhile, Judy gave birth to two more children, Ginny in 1968 and Ben in 1971.

Dr Schiller wrote a number of papers and chapters in books, and edited and contributed to three endoscopy-related volumes. The most significant was A Colour Atlas of Gastroenterological Endoscopy in 1986.

He had a passion for the natural world – the wildflowers of the Austrian Alps, migrating birds in Norfolk, and his garden at the Mill in Cuddesdon, where he lived since 1993.

He was a member of Glyndebourne for more than 50 years, frequently attending the opera at Garsington, and could often be seen at Blackwell’s and the Oxford Playhouse.

The funeral was held at Oxford Crematorium on Tuesday.