As a pupil at King Edward's, he studied under the school's Director of Music, Willis Grant, who appointed him as his Assistant.
[1] His daughter, Ruth Oxley, said that he practised regularly, learning virtually "from scratch" after his stroke, and made an unexpected "amazing recovery" in terms of his playing.
[2] He died of heart failure on 6 April 2009; his funeral was held at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
[1] Oxley controversially decided to introduce girls into the then all-male cathedral choir in the early 1970s.
The mixed choir stopped some time after a new Provost of the cathedral took office in 1981 and began to phase out the girls.