The Oxford was the favourite trainer of both Empire Air Training Scheme and British Commonwealth Air Training Plan which is why it was distributed all along the British Empire.
Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, was flying an Oxford when she when missing over the Thames Estuary, where she presumably and unfortunately crashed in 1941.
The Oxford continued in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) well after the war, until 1956 to be more precise. They were used as trainers and light transports.
Most Oxfords in the United Kingdom were equipped with a knotted rope which went from the pilot's seat to the rear door to assist in the evacuation should the plane entered into an uncontrollable spin, which was almost impossible to recover from. When the pilots released their seat belts centripetal force would hurl them to the rear of the plane, beyond the exit door, from where it was impossible to crawl forward to the door. The rope was installed as an answer to a test made by four engineers who tried to recover from a spin at 18.000 ft (5.484 m) high. When the aircraft didn't recover no matter how hard they tried, the four released their harness and were immediately hurled to the rear of the plane where they remained helpless as the spiral descent continued. However, the plane was in such flat spin when it reached the ground that it skidded sideways over the surface of a field until the tail section hit a haystack and broke off. The four engineers walked away with minor injuries and the valuable lesson that the knotted rope was the only positive remedy for the Oxford in case it entered a spin.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Oxford
2. https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/airspeed-horsa-glider
3. https://www.airvectors.net/avanson.html
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