Ann Watson

ANN Watson, of Water Eaton Lane, Gosford, Kidlington, has died in a road accident. She was aged 68.

She was killed on December 13 last year while travelling north on the M6 in Staffordshire on her way to visit relatives in Scotland.

Mrs Watson, a former chairman of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, leaves three children and eight grandchildren.

She met her husband, Peter, in 1953 when he was studying at Trinity College, Oxford, and she was working in Oxford for the University Appointments Board.

They married in 1959 and moved to Surrey, then lived in the Midlands before returning to Gosford in 1985.

They moved into Gosford House, which has been owned by Mrs Watson's family since 1947.

Mrs Watson was a keen ornithologist and was a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the World Wildlife Fund. Her love of birds led her to take holidays in India, Central America and Africa to watch and photograph exotic species.

She took a job working part time for Oxford Research Agency, in Botley Road, and was elected to Kidlington Parish Council and Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, of which she is a former chairman.

Muriel Prestidge, her successor as chairman of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, said: "She was a very good councillor and a very pleasant person and will be badly missed."

There will be a thanksgiving service on January 24 at St Mary's Kidlington at 2pm.