Bernard Llewellyn, who "epitomised the very best of Oxfam", has died at his Abingdon home aged 88.

The South Avenue resident devoted 24 years of his life to the Oxford-based aid charity, helping the then-fledgling organisation prosper around the world.

A committed pacifist, he served with the Friends Ambulance Unit from 1940 to 1945 in England, Burma, India and China.

After the war, he continued living in Asia where he penned acclaimed articles and travel books.

In 1954 he joined the Save the Children Fund based at Masan in Korea, where he dealt with the refugee crisis which had developed during the conflict there.

It was here he met Patricia, an English nurse whom he married in 1957.

A year later Mr Llewellyn joined Oxfam as information and supplies officer, and moved from Croydon to Abingdon, where his children, Linda, David and Michael, would later grow up.

At Oxfam's small office in Queen Street, Oxford, Mr Llewellyn - an economist by profession - was the first member of staff with overseas experience.

Between 1964 and 1967 the Llewellyns travelled throughout South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent as Bernard worked to develop the charity's aid programme in the region.

On returning to Oxford he worked with Oxfam's overseas aid division, continuing for the next 14 years to travel abroad regularly to review projects until his retirement in 1982.

After his working life, Mr Llewellyn could regularly be seen scouring secondhand bookshops as he continued his long-held interest in reading and writing.

A keen stamp collector since childhood, he was also a member of Harwell Philatelic Society before failing eyesight forced him to give up the hobby.

In 1996 he made his last journey to China to revisit some of the places along the Burma Road where he had driven ambulances half a century earlier.

Ultimately, heart and circulation problems resulted in his peaceful death at home on June 8.

Former colleague Maggie Black, the author of A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam the First 50 Years, said: "A person of tremendous intellect worn very lightly, Bernard was equally someone of great simplicity and total lack of ego."

She added: "Bernard epitomised the very best of Oxfam, including that Oxfam valued his gifts, however uncomfortable that sometimes was.

"In a more selfless age, this person of quintessential modesty was content to live a life of service to humanity on the most meagre of financial rewards, when he could have had a brilliant career in any field he chose.

"There were others with the same qualities at Oxfam in those days and probably still are, but Bernard had a quiet eminence all his own."