The Rev Patrick Selwood, photographer, amateur actor and Oxford's first married Roman Catholic deacon, has died aged 71.

He began his career as a photographer when he returned to Oxford after serving in the Navy during the war.

He made use of the science subjects he had taken at Oxford High School to take a job as a technician in the human anatomy department at the University. He later became a photographer to the Department of Agricultural Science and remained there until his retirement in 1989.

A devout Roman Catholic, Mr Selwood served at St Aloysius Church, north Oxford, starting as an altar boy at the age of five and becoming deacon in 1990. He was one of the first ten permanent deacons to be ordained in the Birmingham Diocese and was Oxford's first married deacon. He moved to the parish of St Gregory and St Augustine, also in north Oxford, in 1993.

Mr Selwood combined his church duties with a love of amateur acting and performed on stage until a few years ago. As well as appearances for the Oxford Theatre Guild, he had walk-on parts in Oxford productions by the Festival Ballet and Sadler's Wells and Glyndebourne Opera companies.

He was the Catholic representative for several years at the annual Remembrance Day service at Oxford War Memorial.

He was a keen traveller and recently took his wife Mary to Hong Kong, where at the end of the war he had seen the surrender of the Japanese and helped to release prisoners of war.

He leaves a widow, five children and seven grand- children.

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