JOHN Dossett-Davies, well-known for his work in several Witney societies, has died.

Mr Dossett-Davies retu-rned to Witney in 1985 on retirement, after holding several prestigious roles in social work, having worked in the town as an aircraft inspector at the de Havilland’s factoryduring the Second World War.

He became chairman, and later patron, of the Witney and District Historical Society, for whom he wrote articles on local history.

He was also president of the Witney branch of the Royal British Legion, founder chairman and later secretary of the Witney Twinning Association, chairman of the de Havilland Fellowship, chairman of the Barnett House Society, Oxford, and member of the management committee, and later president, of the Witney and District Museum.

He was also a member of the committee of the Witney branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, and occasionally wrote music and art reviews for the Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times. He also worked as a film extra and appeared in Inspector Morse, Shadowlands and The Madness of King George among others.

Mr Dossett-Davies became interested in social work as a soldier in Italy in 1945, where he helped to run a youth club for displaced street children.

He started his career in social work as a child care officer in the Rhondda Valley, later becoming assistant children's officer for Birmingham, deputy director of social services for Leicester, and director of social work and childcare for the National Children’s Home.

He was also seconded to the Economist Intelligence Unit as adviser to the Saudi Arabian Government on social welfare.

In 1965 he returned to Italy on a Council of Europe Fellowship to compare the childcare services of Milan and Birmingham.

In 1966, he was the first social worker to be awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship and went to Australia to study the problems of young British immigrants.

He was a member of the Home Office Advisory Council on Child Care and was the treasurer of the British Association of Social Workers and chairman of its Oxfordshire branch.

In 2000, he was awarded a BASW Fellowship, only the third in the history of the association, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to social work practice and the fellowship.

He was also an MBE.

He leaves a wife, Anne, a son and daughter, and two grandchildren.