THE Lady Joyce Crowther-Hunt, wife of the late Lord Norman Crowther-Hunt (Fellow and Lecturer in Politics at Exeter College 1952-1982, and Rector 1982-1987), died peacefully at home in North Oxford, aged 83.

Lady Crowther-Hunt was President of the Oxfordshire Girl Guides for 11 years between 1989 and 2000.

A dedicated Guider, she held many leadership roles in the Guiding movement in Oxfordshire from the 1960's onwards. She set up the first Ranger Guide Unit in the County and was Ranger Leader, District Commissioner, Division Commissioner, Assistant County Commissioner and most recently an active member of the Trefoil Guild.

Lady Crowther-Hunt was also Chairman of the Guide Friendship Committee, which was responsible for making grants to Guiding around the world.

In 1978, she was made a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) in Oxfordshire for her services to young people including her chairmanship of the Queen's Silver Jubilee appeal. She was only the second woman in the UK to be a DL.

Lady Crowther-Hunt was also chairman of Oxford University Newcomer's Club, 1989-1991, chairman of the Oxford Women's Luncheon Club 1985-1987, as well as Rector's wife.

As Rector's wife at Exeter College, Lady Crowther-Hunt put great emphasis on the pastoral care of students and providing opportunities for families associated with the College to become involved in college life and to make friends.

Foreign students, unable to return home over the Christmas vacation, were made welcome, joining her family for Christmas Day in the Lodgings at Exeter College.

Lady Crowther-Hunt organised the annual children's party for the children of Fellows and College staff, co-hosted the musical evenings in the Lodgings for college students and Fellows and set up evenings for wives of former students who were returning to the college.

In addition to her public roles, Joyce was a devoted wife, a loving and supportive mother to her three daughters who survive her and a devoted grandmother to her seven grandchildren.

The eldest of three children, she was born Joyce Stackhouse in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada in April 1922.

Her father, the Rev Joseph Stackhouse, had left Staffordshire to spend seven years as a missionary priest in the prairies of Saskatchewan.

Back in England, she was brought up in the vicarage in Walsall Wood before she left home to become a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, during the war, defying her father's challenge that she would soon be back home. That was where she met Norman and they were married a year before the end of the war in September 1944.

After the war, Lady Crowther-Hunt accompanied her husband to Cambridge where he finished his undergraduate degree and PhD. In 1952, she accompanied him to the United States and then to Oxford where he took up his post as Politics Don at Exeter College.

Lady Crowther-Hunt remained a strong supporter of Exeter College after her husband's death and continued to attend college functions.

Lady Crowther-Hunt was proud to open the Crowther-Hunt building at Exeter College in 1987 which was funded by the successful fundraising appeal, including a trip undertaken by Norman and Joyce to the USA and Canada.

In 1990, she was also recognised with a Spanish honour from King Juan Carlos Dame of the Order Isabella the Catholic for her role with Norman in establishing the Spanish Queen Sophia Research Fellowship at Exeter College to support young scholars.

Lady Crowther-Hunt died on October 15 last year after suffering cancer.