The Rev W Norman Stainer-Smith

He was well known in the west Oxfordshire area, where he took responsibility for churches at Burford, Charlbury and Carterton in 1981, and then at Long Hanborough. He was also chaplain to Witney Community Hospital.

For several years he also wrote a regular column for the Oxford Mail's sister paper the Witney Gazette, covering a wide range of spiritual and political issues.

Mr Stainer-Smith was born in Wimbledon, south London, and after an early career in insurance went into the Methodist ministry in his 20s.

His vocation took him all over the country, as a minister in East Anglia, Newcastle, Leeds and Birmingham.

He helped set up the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs and for many years was a vice president. He also believed in the value of travel and broadening horizons, organising trips abroad, to Europe and the United States.

In the late 1940s, while minister at Truro, he arranged trips to Cornwall for young people who had been formerly connected to the Hitler Youth Movement in Nazi Germany.

Well into retirement Mr Stainer-Smith took an active interest in the community life of Witney. He was president of the town's Langel Probus Club for retired people.

He died at a nursing home in Cheltenham.

His wife Enid died just two months ago and he is survived by a son, two daughters and six grandchildren.

A service of thanksgiving was held on June 30, at Bethesda Methodist Church, Cheltenham.