A WELL-known Oxford psychiatrist who continued treating patients into his 70s has died after a short illness.

Dr Seymour Spencer died at the John Radcliffe Hospital aged 91 on Friday.

He was born in London and attended Winchester College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he obtained a wartime medical degree.

He married Margaret in 1944 before being posted to India as part of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

On leaving the military, he completed his medical studies between Oxford and Newcastle, obtaining a diploma in psychiatry. He moved to Oxford as a consultant psychiatrist in 1961, and later worked at the Warneford Hospital, a Headington NHS hospital which sees OAPs with mental health problems and younger people with dementia, as well as private patients.

Although he retired aged 72 in 1993, Mr Spencer continued to see patients for a further five years, and was a clinical lecturer for Oxford University until 1995.

He also worked at Sir Michael Sobell House Hospice, at the Churchill Hospital, in his retirement. The hospice cared for his wife, who passed away in 1999. He had four sons and one daughter, nine grandchildren and one great granddaughter, born last December.

His son John said: “During his 80s he was the most active man of that age I have ever met, constantly organising trips abroad, wine tastings and other events.”

Dr Spencer’s funeral will be held at Corpus Christi Church, Headington, on Wednesday, June 15 at 11am.

Donations to Sir Michael Sobell Hospice are requested in lieu of flowers.