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

Mr Shaw was born in Lancashire and attended Manchester University, where he studied pharmacy.

Called up for national service into the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was placed in charge of the pharmacy at Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, London.

Having received his posting to take a field hospital to the Korean conflict, his war service was vetoed by his commanding officers on the basis that he was due to play cricket at Lord’s in the Army trial on the day the boat left. The boat sank.

Mr Shaw met his wife Joan in Westminster and they married in 1954. Mrs Shaw was a teacher at Gosford Hill School in Kidlington from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. She died last year. They lived in Hampton Poyle, apart from a short period living in Woodstock, until Mr Shaw retired from business.

Mr Shaw took over the management of the Axtells group of chemists in the late 1950s. He was a parish councillor in Kidlington and also chairman of the council.

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

Mr Shaw was appointed a county magistrate in 1971. He was elected to Woodstock Town Council and served as Mayor of Woodstock in 1979.

He moved to North Yorkshire, on retiring.

He died from cancer on April 5. He is survived by his two sons, Andrew and Iain, five grandchildren and one great-grandson.

His ashes were interred at St Mary’s Church, Hampton Poyle.