PSYCHOLOGY lecturer at Oxford University and director of mental health for nearly 20 years Dr Antonia Whitehead has died, aged 75.

Dr Whitehead was a senior research fellow and psychology lecturer at the University of Oxford, before becoming director of mental health in Kingston-on-Thames.

She was described by her family as a woman of great intelligence with a wonderful sense of humour and enormous courage.

Antonia Whitehead, known as Toni to her family and friends, was born on November 2, 1939, near Liverpool, to parents Norris, a physics master, and Violet, a secretary. She had an older sister, Juliet Clark, now aged 80.

Dr Whitehead went to Teignmouth Grammar School near Dawlish until she was 18.

After school she attended University College London from 1958 to 1961 and was awarded a BSc in psychology before starting work at Wallington Park Hospital in 1964 and 1965.

She then studied for a PhD at the Institute of Psychology in 1971.

Between 1971 and 1974 she worked as a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, lecturing in psychology.

She began living in Old Road, in Wheatley.

Dr Whitehead was most notably known for being the director of Mental Health at Kingston-on-Thames from 1979 to 1995, when she retired at the age of 55.

She was also an honorary senior lecturer at St George’s Medical School.

She never married or had children.

From 1986 Dr Whitehead joined an ornithological society based in Shotover Woods, where she did a great deal of work charting the rise and fall of the bird population there.

Her sister Mrs Clark said she believed Dr Whitehead’s most interesting observation was that the bird population had gone back to normal, and was the same when she began in 1986 to when she recorded her final observations last year.

She had many friends and would travel to see them all across Oxfordshire.

She would also enjoy walking trips in France and taking special bird-watching holidays.

She was also very interested in music and was part of a local choir.

Dr Whitehead and her sister Mrs Clark would also make regular trips to Oxford exhibitions, especially at the Ashmolean.

She also loved gardening and had a big garden, which she kept semi-wild to encourage the local bird population, by her home in Old Road, Wheatley.

Dr Whitehead died on October 12, 2015 after suffering from cancer.

Her sister said she stayed determined towards the end, and achieved her “courageous” ambition to be self-caring.

She is survived by her sister Juliet Clark and her family.

A service to celebrate Dr Whitehead’s life will be at Oxford Crematorium on Tuesday, November 3, at 12.15pm.