Life of a genius

1936 Born in Weymouth,

Dorset

1940 Witnesses the Plymouth blitz

1942 Moves to the Isle of Man 1951–54 Attends the Douglas School of Art and Technology. Draws inspiration from the island’s leading contemporary artist, Bryan Kneale (b. 1930), today a fellow Royal Academician 1954–56 National Service in the Royal

Artillery 1956–59 Attends the Slade School of Art in London

1960 Works as a lithographer at Atelier Patris, Paris, France 1961–69 Becomes an art-school lecturer at Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry and Stourbridge 1970–71 Visiting associate professor Fine Art at Calgary and Victoria Universities in Canada 1973–80 Lecturer, then professor in Sculpture, University of Applied Sciences for Design, Pforzheim, West Germany

1980–99 Professor of Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany

1986 Wins the Nobutaka Shikanai Prize, 1st Rodin Grand Prize Exhibition at the Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-air Museum, Japan

1990 Elected Royal Academician 1995 Wins the Henry Hering Memorial Medal (for the Malta Siege Bell Memorial, below), National Sculpture Society of America

1997 Resigns from the Royal Academy (RA) over its ‘ducking and weaving’ about the Myra Hindley portrait in the ‘Sensation’ exhibition

2004 Rejoins the RA 2021 Becomes patron of the Public Statues and Sculpture Association

2017 and 2022 His memorials are featured on Maltese and Manx and postage stamps