COLIN Shaw, a former pharmacist, councillor and magistrate in Oxfordshire, has died aged 77, following a battle with cancer.

Mr Shaw was born in Lancashire and attended Stockport School and Manchester University, qualifying as a pharmacist before his 21st birthday.

A gifted sportsman in his youth, he played cricket to first-class standard.

He was called up for National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps – somewhat to his chagrin as he really wanted a commission in the Royal Artillery. He was placed in charge of the pharmacy at Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, at Millbank, in Westminster.

He later received a posting to take a field hospital to the Korean War, but the move was vetoed by his commanding officers on the basis that he was due to play cricket at Lords in an Army trial the day the boat left.

Clearly far too important to the RAMC, he stayed on British soil.

He always joked that he encouraged his sons and grandsons to play cricket on the basis that “the poor devil who had to go in my place had a terrible time – for a start the boat sank”.

Mr Shaw met his wife Joan in Westminster and married in 1954.

Joan was a teacher at Gosford Hill School in Kidlington from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. She died last year.

Moving to Hampton Poyle in 1962, Mr Shaw lived in the village, apart from a short period in Woodstock, until he retired from business and moved to Harrogate, in North Yorkshire.

In the last year of his life, he divided his time between Ripon, in Yorkshire, and Charlbury.

Mr Shaw took over the management of the Axtells group of chemist shops following the premature death of Eric Axtell in the late 1950s.

He was a parish councillor in Kidlington and also served as chairman of the council.

Mr Shaw acquired the Old Pharmacy in Woodstock in the late 1960s and remained Woodstock’s chemist for more than 35 years, which he operated latterly with the Pharmacy, in Charlbury, which he also owned.

Mr Shaw was appointed a county magistrate in 1971. He was elected to Woodstock Town Council and served as mayor of Woodstock, after being elected to the post in 1979.

He died on April 5.

He is survived by his two sons and five grandchildren.

His ashes will be interred at St Mary’s Church, in Hampton Poyle, following a service of thanksgiving on Tuesday, April 28, at noon.