Sir – I was saddened to learn of Stephen Townsend’s death (Gazette, December 18).

I had the privilege of knowing him when he was a student at the then West Oxfordshire Technical College – a great character with a sense of humour, who refused to let his disabilities get in the way of his ambitions.

I recall leaving him marooned in the principal’s office one day while I drove to the Nuffield Hospital in Oxford to deliver one of his false legs for repair and to collect his ‘spare’.

We were thrilled when we learned he had gained his pilot’s wings.

Doreen Turner, Burwell Meadow, Witney