A JAZZ-LOVING youth leader who help establish a twin-town link with Germany has died aged 89.

Stanley Hall of Wantage also worked for years as a council health inspector and director of environmental health and helped found and run Vale House care home in Oxford.

His daughter has said he was devoted to his family, who he managed to find time for in between badminton, gardening, volunteering and the wine circle.

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Stanley James Alfred Hall was born in Reading on April 26, 1930.

He went to Wilson Road School, followed by Reading Technical College and South East London Technical College.

His first job was as a solicitor's clerk in Reading, before he was conscripted for National Service in the RAF in 1948.

Shortly after finishing his term he proposed to Dorothy 'Sheila' Rabson, and they were married at Tilehurst Methodist Church, Reading, on June 13, 1953.

His first local government job was as in the public health inspectors team at Reading Corporation in 1955.

The couple had their first child, Lynda, on May 27, 1958.

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When she was just three years old the family moved from Reading to Grove in 1961, when Mr Hall took up a new post as public health inspector at Wantage Rural District Council.

He later became director of housing and environmental health for Vale of White Horse District Council until retiring in 1991.

The couple's second daughter, Nicola, was born in Wantage Hospital on June 5, 1962.

As well as his day job, Mr Hall was a well-liked and respected assistant warden at Wantage Youth Club from 1963 to 1973 and is still fondly remembered by members.

On a Tuesday there could be hundreds of youngsters in the hall at Icknield School for the weekly disco.

While on a youth leadership training course in 1965, he met an inspirational German youth leader called Rudi Kruger from the spa town Bad Gandersheim (about nine miles from Seesen in Lower Saxony).

Mr Kruger announced to Stan that next year he would bring 30 boys and girls to Wantage for two weeks.

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So in July 1966 Mr Hall, with the support of Roy Wood, found host families for all the young people.

The following summer Mr and Mrs Hall and others took a group of teenagers to Seesen.

Some of the others who helped were Roy Wood, Joan and Bernard Baxter and Tom and Joan Nobes.

Thus was born the Wantage/Seesen Youth Exchange scheme which eventually evolved into the official Wantage and Seesen town twinning in 1978.

Mr Hall last visited Seesen with a civic party in 1992.

While director of housing, Mr Hall worked with Vale councillors, social services, the area health authority (including Wantage GP John Hawkey) and volunteers from the Oxfordshire branch of the Alzheimer’s Disease Society to found Vale House care home in Botley.

It opened on April 26, 1990, Mr Hall’s 60th birthday.

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He was chairman of the management committee for several years after he retired from the council and he described his involvement in the project as one of his greatest achievements.

Vale House, which has now moved to Littlemore as it needed more space, will mark its 30th anniversary this year on what would have been Mr Hall’s 90th birthday.

In his personal life, Mr Hall was a member of Grove Methodist Church where, in the early 1960s, he had helped run the Inters Guild group in Wantage and later a Sunday School group for teenagers called ‘Wayfarers’ during the 1970s in Grove.

In his spare time enjoyed playing badminton and table tennis and was an accomplished and very keen gardener.

He volunteered at Fitzwaryn special school and Wantage's Vale and Downland Museum and was a member of Probus and Hanney Wine Circle.

He loved trad jazz and was a regular in the audience at The Lamb in Hanney, Lains Barn, Zelda’s jazz room at the Comrades Club and the Lamb Inn, Wantage, for monthly gigs by Wantage jazz band leader Dave Moorwood.

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Mr Hall was devoted to his family and took much pleasure in his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Mr Hall passed away on Sunday, February 16, at Framland care home in Wantage following age-related illness.

He is survived by his wife Sheila, his daughters Lynda Culley and Nicola Frost, grandchildren Tessa Hynes, Adam Jefferies, Grace Culley and Hayley Foulks, and great-grandchildren Una, Joey and Luna.

His funeral service will be held on Monday, March 16, at Wantage Methodist Church, Newbury Street, from at 12.30pm.

His family would be pleased to welcome anyone who would like to remember him.

There will be a short family committal at South Oxfordshire Crematorium following the service and then all are welcome at the Lamb Inn, Mill Street, Wantage for refreshments and jazz.