Tony Tallents: A friend to all

Mr Tallents, of Lower End, Piddington, near Bicester, was also a long-standing adjutant general of the Sealed Knot, the Civil War reenactment society.

He joined after taking his family to watch an event in Cropredy about 40 years ago.

Former civil servant Mr Tallents worked for Bicester Ordnance Depot for more than 30 years, and looked after the sales group in the directorate supply management section.

His job was to ensure stock supply lines were maintained to smaller depots in Britain and overseas, and he travelled extensively, including South America and the Falkland Islands.

Mr Tallents was born in Devon and after school joined the Army, serving eight years with the Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regiment, Tower of London headquarters. During his career he served in the Korean War.

Back in Devon his father advised him to join the civil service, and Mr Tallents got his first job in Wroughton, in Wiltshire. It was there he met future wife Iris Whitehead.

They married in 1955 and had two daughters Anne and Sally. The family moved to Oxfordshire, spending several years in Didcot, before moving to Piddington, near Bicester, in 1963.

Mr Tallents was chairman of Cherwell District Council, and signed a friendship charter with Bicester’s twin town Neunkirchen-Seelsheid, in Germany, in 1982. He was a district councillor for 18 years, and Piddington parish councillor for 31 years.

Grandfather-of-three Mr Tallents was also a long-standing member of the Freemasons, retired professionals lunch club Probus, and the University of the Third Age’s Bicester branch.

Mrs Tallents 77, a former North Oxfordshire magistrate, described her husband as a “quiet gentleman”.

Mr Tallents died on February 24, after suffering poor health for the past eight months.

Cherwell’s leader Barry Wood said: “He was a dedicated public servant and loved helping people and speaking up for people. He lived respected and has died regretted.”