William Keith Munsey, known as Bill, a well-known flour miller who built the Osney Mill Marina, has died at 86 years old.

For the majority of his working life, Mr Munsey worked at the Wessex Mill, Wantage, with the family business, WH Munsey.

Mr Munsey was born in Osney Mill House, Mill Street, Oxford in 1933.

In his youth he attended Dragon School and later St Edward’s School, Oxford, where he played rugby and also rowed.

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He had vivid memories of the family’s business premises at Osney Flour Mill burning down in a fire in 1946, while he was a boy.

After national service, he joined the family business at new premises in Wantage in the 1950s.

The family were not able to rebuild the Osney flour mill because materials were scarce after the war so they bought the Clarks Mill in Wantage, which later became Wessex Mill.

As a flour miller he was involved in the flour millers associations and also the local bakers association.

The Munsey family’s flour was used to make confectionary and biscuits across the UK, and among its customers was Cadbury.

Mr Musney worked at Wessex Mill until his 80s, when he was responsible for buying wheat.

In 1968, the old mill at Osney was derelict.

Mr Munsey recognised that the mill race would make an ideal marina for cruisers, which were popular on the Thames at that time.

With the help of an engineer called Ray Wright, he started clearing the overgrown island and digging out the marina, which became a large mooring point on the Thames.

Mr Munsey was a keen rower after leaving school, and was well-known in the local rowing community, competing at Henley and as part of the crew which won the City of Oxford Bumps in 1953 and 1956.

After a crash on the A420, he ruptured his spleen and never rowed again.

In 1954 Bill met a farmer’s daughter Molly Saunders.

They married and had their first child Paul in 1956. Deborah followed in 1958, and Tony in 1960.

The couple were divorced in 1970 and he then met his second wife Pip, though they only married in 2000.

Mr Munsey’s son Tony said he was an ‘extremely generous man and loved entertaining’, and remembered parties at the Osney marina and on his father’s boat, the Mechant.

Tony said: “His annual boat trips were legendary. On the outward journey he would always leave a bottle of beer for the lock keepers on the edge of each lock and on the way home every time he approached a lock, the lock gates would be miraculously open.”

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He added: “The marina would have annual parties that would go long into the night in the remains of the mill, the dance floor would vibrate but somehow the building stayed upright.”

Mr Munsey is survived by his three children and five grandchildren.

A funeral service will take place on Tuesday, November 5, from 11am at South Oxfordshire Crematorium, Garford.

Family flowers only.

Donations are welcomed for the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK.