THE FOUNDER of Oxford's Urology department and one of Britain's most influential surgeons Joe Smith OBE has died, aged 85.

As well as founding the department, which is now at the Churchill Hospital, he mentored a generation of surgeons to treat diseases of the male and female urinary tract systems and reproductive organs for more than 25 years.

Mr Smith was also a president of the British Association of Urological Surgeons and was awarded an OBE for services to Medicine in 1995.

Under is guidance the department built up an international reputation in both clinical and academic research.

He was also a civilian consultant in Urology to the Royal Navy and went as far as Oman and Brazil in advisory roles as well as carrying out surgery.

Joseph Colin Smith was born in Lancaster on February 9, 1931 to parents Francis, a grocer with the family firm TD Smiths, and Kathleen.

He grew up in the city with his older brother Ian and his younger sister Felicity and went to Bootham School in York from the age of eleven to seventeen.

It was at Bootham that he decided on a career in medicine, mainly due to the influence of his biology teacher Clifford Smith.

After leaving school in 1948 he was accepted at University College Hospital in London.

He qualified from UCH despite battling with tuberculosis and being sent home for six months.

When he returned to clinical medicine he worked as a house physician at The Miller General Hospital in South East London.

It was here, according to his close friend David Cranston, he would meet his 'stunningly attractive' future wife Mafalda, an Italian nurse who had come to England to study.

The pair married on October 5, 1957 at St Pancras Old Church before honeymooning in Italy in the two-seater HRG sports car that had won at Le Mans in 1939.

Mr Cranston, who would eventually take over from Mr Smith in Oxford's Urology department, said his wife was pleased to have swapped the names Anna Maria Grazia Domenica Cavalieri for Smith.

They had three children, Alexandra, who died in March 2013 aged 54, Chris and Gabriella.

After a short period at the University of California in 1963 and then more time in London, the family settled in Oxfordshire when Mr Smith obtained a consultant post.

The couple moved to Wootton near Boars Hill in 1966, before living in Witney for 20 years, and eventually settled in Yarnton where he lived until he died last month from pneumonia.

In 1974 he set up the Department of Urology which would go on to train and mentor hundreds of surgeons.

He retired from the health service in 1994 and was awarded an OBE from the Queen a year later.

He was president of the Medical Defence Union from 1997 until his official retirement in 2001.

In his younger days he was a keen squash and tennis player, playing Real Tennis for Merton College, which still has a veterans cup named after him.

As he grew older he developed a passion for golf and catching crayfish.

He is survived by two children and eight grandchildren and his wife Mafalda and daughter Alex predeceased him.