Professor Sir David Yardley, former chairman of Oxford Preservation Trust, has died aged 84.

He was chairman of the group from 1989 to 2009.

An Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, where he also taught law from 1953, he was a government ombudsman and the chairman of the Commission for Local Administration in England from 1982 to 1994. He died on June 3 following a short illness.

St Edmund Hall principal Professor Keith Gull said: “David was a phenomenon, one of the nicest and most generous men I have ever met. The combination of such attributes with a great academic mind, wit and wise judgement is rare indeed.”

He leaves behind his widow, Patsy.

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