Sculptor wins clockmakers’ honour

More than a decade ago, OH Boyd sculpted John Harrison – who made the world’s first timekeepers accurate enough for navigation – at the studio he then had in Barton-Upon-Humber, not far from where Harrison once lived and tested his sea clocks.

Mr Boyd later carved portraits of men and women who have kept the story of Harrison alive, including Andrew King, the world’s foremost expert on Harrison’s clocks and Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale, the 14th Astronomer Royal and emeritus professor of physics at Durham University.

Mr Boyd took the oath in London on Monday.

He said: “It was a singularly proud moment as John Harrison was also a member of this ancient body founded in 1631 by King Charles 1.

“The election was on the basis of my Harrison scholarship; proposed by Sir Arnold Wolfendale who has become a close friend and seconded by members of the ‘Longitude’ set who were responsible for the Harrison Memorial being placed in Westminster Abbey.”