Boyd family

The Boyd family is an Australian family whose members over several generations contributed to the arts in the fields of painting, sculpture, pottery, ceramics, literature, architecture, poetry and music. The Boyd family is considered an artistic dynasty.

For the like-named Scottish clan, see Clan Boyd.

Merric and Doris Boyd at home, Open Country, with their family, complete, in 1943, gathered for a photograph by Albert Tucker whose companion Joy Hester, lazes on one arm to the right.

Family tree

The family is descended from four diverse immigrants to Victoria:

These four families were joined by marriages of their children in the young colony of Victoria in the 1850s:

  • The Hon. William Arthur Callendar à Beckett (1833–1901) married Emma Mills (1838–1906) in 1855, and together they had six children, including Emma Minnie à Beckett (1858–1936);[3] and Major Alexander Boyd's son Captain John Theodore Thomas Boyd (1825–1891) married Dr Robert Martin's daughter Lucy Charlotte Martin in 1857, and had 12 children, including Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940).[4]
    • Arthur Merric Boyd married Emma Minnie à Beckett (known as Minnie). Both were already individually established in society as painters. They had five children, four of whom became prominent in the Australian artistic world. When their children had matured, married or settled elsewhere, Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie Boyd lived in a connecting property to their son, Merric Boyd and family in Wahroongaa Crescent, Murrumbeena but then in 1924 moved to 5 Edward Street, Sandringham.[5][6] When his wife died in 1936 Arthur Merric moved to a family cottage at Rosebud[7] on the Mornington Peninsula on the shores of Port Phillip Bay and in 1939 returned to Wahroongaa Crescent, Murrumbeena where he lived out his last days.
      • John Gilbert à Beckett Boyd (1886–1896) was killed in a riding accident.
      • William Merric Boyd (1888–1959), potter,[4][8] married Doris Gough (1889–1960), painter.[9] Doris and Merric Boyd, newly married, found their home there, at Murrumbeena, naming it "Open Country," establishing a continuance of artistic tradition to the name Boyd.
        • Lucy Evelyn Gough Boyd (1916–2009), painter, ceramic decorator,[10] married Hatton Beck (1901–1994), ceramist, potter, sculptor.[11]
          • Laurence Hatton Beck (1940–)
          • Robert Hatton Beck (1942–)
          • Paul Hatton Beck (1948–)
        • Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (1920–1999), painter, married Yvonne Lennie, painter.
          • Polly Boyd (1946–) Melbourne-born landscapist in oil[12]
          • Jamie Patrick Boyd (1948–), painter and sculptor[13][14]
          • Lucy Ellen Boyd
        • Guy Martin à Beckett Boyd (1923–1988),early poet, potter, sculptor, married Phyllis Emma Nairn.[15]
          • Lenore Ann (1953-)
          • Sally Deirdre (1956-)
          • Derry Catherine (1957-)
          • Kirstin Doris (1960-)
          • Ben
          • Charlotte Beatrice Magdalen (1968–2021)
          • Martin Duncan Gough (1970-)
        • David Fielding Gough Boyd (1924–2011), potter, painter,[16] married Hermia Lloyd-Jones (1931– ), Sydney-born ceramic decorator, artist, stage designer.[12]
          • Amanda
          • Lucinda
          • Cassandra (1956– ) painter, born in Melbourne. Lived in France from 1971[12]
        • Mary Elizabeth Boyd (1926–2016),[17] early age paint and pottery acquaintance, a chronicling photographer from 1960's. Married firstly, November 1944, John Perceval, painter, potter, and sculptor, and had four children.
          • Matthew
          • Tessa
          • Celia
          • Alice
            Mary married secondly, in 1978, Sir Sidney Nolan, painter, becoming Lady Nolan.
      • Theodore Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923), painter, married Edith Susan Gerard Anderson, painter.[18]
        • Pamela Boyd (b & d 1913)
        • Pat Boyd | John à Beckett Penleigh (Pat) Boyd (1915–1980), painter, wartime pilot,[19] then commercial aviation pilot, married Anne Davy.[20]
        • Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd (1919–1971), architect and writer, married Patricia Madder, daughter to Læticia, a sister to Doris Boyd.
      • Martin à Beckett Boyd (1893–1972), writer.
      • Helen Read à Beckett Boyd (1903–1999), late painter, married Neven Read, naval officer.
        • Gayner Read (1936–1988), painter. Two sons.
        • Susan Read (1938–), children Pennie Easton, Ken Easton, Greame Easton.
        • Andrew Read (1942–), Arthur Read, Rossie Read.
        • Prudence Read (1947–)

It was in 1955 when David Boyd with his wife Hermia returned from a stay of several successful working years as potters in England and the south of France that the conception of this family line was popularised in a display of public relations in the press, magazines and the media (radio in 1955, television arrived 1956) that dismayed most family members. David was working full-scale promoting the circumstances of his life for the benefit of the pottery exhibitions of his and his wife's work, and magazine editors found the thick patina of past grandeur as presented to them by David irresistible and pages of glory adorned the 1955 magazines and newspaper articles. From here on, in the family's history no members could think of themselves again as quite so elite or socially removed although in the popular sense as an artistic family the notoriety was never greater. The generations that followed (including those born before 1955) grew up in this imposed social and cultural circumstance.

See also

References
  1. Coppel, E. G. (1969). à Beckett, Sir William (1806–1869). Retrieved 3 April 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. Malone, Betty (1969). à Beckett, Thomas Turner (1808–1892). Retrieved 3 April 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. Thomson, Kathleen (1969). à Beckett, William Arthur (1833–1901). Retrieved 3 April 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. Tipping, Marjorie J. (1979). Boyd, Arthur Merric (1862–1940). Retrieved 20 May 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. Newspaper - Argus The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Mon 14 Sep 1936, p1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11914383
  6. "VHD".
  7. Shire of Mornington Peninsula heritage assessment of the Arthur Merric Boyd summer house, 62 Rosebud Parade, Rosebud. Archived 31 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Caine, Paul; Smith, Colin (2004). "The Life and Art of Merric Boyd". Colin Smith. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  9. Caine, Paul; Smith, Colin (2003). "Doris Boyd - A Life in Family and Art". Colin Smith. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  10. Caine, Paul; Smith, Colin (2001). "Lucy Boyd Beck ; a Life in Family and Art". Colin Smith. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  11. Caine, Paul; Smith, Colin (2001). "Hatton Beck". Colin Smith. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  12. Max Germaine (1979). Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand. Lansdowne Editions. ISBN 0868320196.
  13. Galeria Aniela (14 August 2010). Meet artist Jamie Boyd in his Studio and hear music he loves. YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  14. Galeria Aniela (15 August 2010). Meet artist Jamie Boyd in his Studio. YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  15. Niall, Brenda (2007). Boyd, Guy Martin à Beckett (1923–1988). Retrieved 3 April 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  16. David Boyd dies aged 87. ABC News (Australia). YouTube. 10 November 2011. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  17. "Mary Boyd, biography notes by Patricia Dobrez. Design & Art Australia Online (DAAO) 1995".
  18. "Boyd, Theodore Penleigh (1890–1923)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Boyd, Theodore Penleigh (1890–1923) by Marjorie J. Tipping. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  19. "Chapter 15: To Noemfoor and Morotai, p.244. . Air War Against Japan 1943–1945 – George Odgers. Publisher: Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1957" (PDF).
  20. "Boyd, John à Beckett Penleigh (Pat) (1915–1981)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Boyd, John à Beckett Penleigh (Pat) (1915–1981) by Brenda Niall. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Further reading
  • Niall, Brenda (July 2002). The Boyds: A Family Biography. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84871-0.
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