Tom Morris, former city engineer for Oxford, has died aged 97. Mr Morris started out his career in local government with the Oxford Corporation in the 1940s, then went to work for other local authorities.

He was deputy city engineer at Bath, and was then borough engineer, surveyor and planning officer at Shrewsbury for 12 years.

Then in 1965 he returned to Oxford to become city engineer, and later went on to hold the post of Oxfordshire surveyor with the county council before he retired.

The father-of-three from Cumnor Rise Road, Cumnor Hill, hit the headlines in 1983 when he walked out of a church service at SS Peter and Paul in West Way, Botley, because he and his wife Marjorie found the sermon too “political”.

He said: “This was a communion service but the sermon I heard was more appropriate to the hustings than the house of God.

“It was not something I expected when I went to church.”

Mr Morris featured in local newspapers again in 1985, when two young vandals built a makeshift wall across his drive.

Mr Morris said afterwards: “It was about 2ft high and completely blocked the driveway.

“They got the line right and it was fairly tightly done but I wouldn’t give them full marks for workmanship.”

Mr Morris died on December 31, and his funeral is being held at St Michael’s Church in Cumnor today.

Mr Morris’s wife was widowed and he leaves two daughters and a son.