The Right Reverend Frank Weston, former Archdeacon of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, has died, aged 67.

Rt Rev Frank Weston, pictured as he prepared to move to Ripon in 1998

Bishop Weston had been due to retire at the end of May after a 40-year career, when he fell ill and suffered a stroke.

He had celebrated his ruby wedding and held a farewell dinner for friends and colleagues four days before his death on April 29.

He was the son of a Sussex vicar and nephew of the early 20th-century missionary Bishop Frank Weston.

His long association with Oxford began when he studied theology at The Queen's College.

After a curacy in Manchester diocese in the 1960s, he became chaplain then principal of the College of the Ascension, in Birmingham, responsible for the training of missionaries and overseas clergy.

In 1976 he moved to Scotland where he trained new clergymen in the Episcopal Church.

There, he attracted the attention of the then Bishop of Oxford, Patrick Rodger, who persuaded him to return to Oxford.

He was Archdeacon of Oxford and Residentiary Canon of Christ Church for 15 years, from 1982 to 1997.

During this time he was responsible for a large area consisting of 240 parishes. He played an active role in college and cathedral life.

When he left Oxford, on being appointed suffragan Bishop of Ripon in 1998, he was made a Fellow of Christ Church.

He became a suffragan -- or assistant -- bishop to head the diocese between the retirement of the then Bishop of Ripon in 1999 and the creation of the renamed Diocese of Ripon and Leeds in 2000.

He leaves his wife Penelope, a son and two daughters.