A TITAN of Oxford University’s Brasenose College has died, aged 90.

Dr Harry Judge was involved with the college in several different guises, starting as a student in 1948 before progressing to Emeritus Fellow four decades later.

He also enjoyed a long career in education, including 12 years as head of Banbury School, now Wykham Park Academy.

Harry Judge was born in Cardiff on August 1, 1928.

His dad was a railway clerk who had been posted to the Welsh capital and Harry spent his entire childhood in the city.

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As a teenager, he attended Cardiff High School and was due to start at Brasenose in 1946, but his entry was deferred due to national service in the RAF.

Mr Judge began studying at the college two years later and read history. He planned to study theology and enter the Church of England, but decided teaching was his calling.

He enjoyed a long marriage with wife Mary, who he married in August 1956. Within the next decade, they had three children, Simon, Hilary and Emma, born in 1959, 1962 and 1966 respectively.

After teaching in schools in London and Surrey, Mr Judge became headmaster of Banbury Grammar School in 1962. He would have a huge influence on education in the north Oxfordshire town.

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He co-ordinated the school’s merger with three others and became the first head of the new Banbury School, leading some 2,500 students.

While in Banbury, Mr Judge was a member of the Public Schools Commissions between 1965 and 1970 and the James Committee of Inquiry into Teacher Education.

In 1973, he returned to Oxford to become a reader in educational studies at the university, which encompassed his role as director of the university's department of education.

Mr Judge settled in Summertown and lived in the area for the rest of his life.

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He continued to hold considerable influence outside of university life and in the 1980s chaired the BBC Schools Broadcasting Council and the Royal College of Nursing Commission on the education of nurses.

In 1988, Mr Judge retired from full-time work in Oxford and was appointed professor of teacher education Policy at Michigan State University.

That year also saw him named an Emeritus Fellow at Brasenose, after holding the position of Professorial Fellow.

He also found the time to write several books and had several interests outside of work.

Mr Judge had a passion for narrowboats and bell-ringing, among other hobbies, and frequented The Dew Drop Inn in on Banbury Road.

He combined his interest in narrowboats and his work at Brasenose through promoting the development of a marina on college land at Cropredy, near Banbury.

The Judge family narrowboat even formed part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant on the River Thames in June 2012.

His eightieth birthday was marked by a new volume of the Oxford Review of Education and he continued to take an interest in college matters into his latter years.

He died on April 2 and is survived by his wife and children. His funeral was held at St. Mary’s Church, Kidlington, last Wednesday.