Obituaries
Trevor Campbell Elsmore
The founder of Witney Motor Company has died at the age of 82.
Trevor Campbell Elsmore had been ill with pneumonia and died at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital on March 6.
He started Witney Motor Company as a second-hand car dealership in 1958 after taking over Cardinal Motors in Witney High Street.
A former naval engineer during the Second World War and a qualified car mechanic, he built up the business and employed 35 people in the 1980s.
His company remained on the High Street selling Humbers, Hillmans, Sunbeams and Singers, and petrol from a pump on the kerbside, until 1969 when, following the introduction of double yellow lines in the High Street, it moved to Station Lane and became a Ford franchise. The firm stayed there for 30 years before relocating to Avenue Three in Station Road.
Mr Elsmore, who lived in Witney, was born in South Wales but his family moved to Oxford when he was four.
A former member of the Witney Rotary Club and Chamber of Trade, Mr Elsmore was also a keen golfer and had been a member at Burford, Frilford Heath and Shrivenham Golf Clubs.
He retired in the mid-1990s when he handed over the reins of the company to his son Stephen, 50.
Daughter Laura, 45, said: "The car business was all he knew. He had a great in-depth knowledge of vehicles; he began trading at a time when owning a car was a luxury item."
He is survived by his wife Lyn, 67, five children, two step-children, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
4:01pm Wednesday 19th March 2008
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