Harry Brockway (1958-2024)

Harry Brockway was an artist specialising in wood engraving, sculpture, letter cutting and architectural stone carving.

Born and brought up in Newport, south Wales, he studied sculpture at Kingston School of Art, and then at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Further courses in stonemasonry and letter cutting helped secure him a job restoring Wells Cathedral, a key early Gothic building. He later joined the workshop of Mel Morris Jones.

He was a member of the Society of Wood Engravers from 1984, eventually becoming chair (2011-14); he was a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers from 2007. His wood engraving illustrations were commissioned by large publishing houses such as Penguin, as well as smaller boutique presses.

Harry became self-employed in 1988, shortly before moving to Glastonbury, Somerset. He worked from a workshop at the bottom of his garden, filled with presses for printing his engravings and easels for working on stone slabs. He would chip or carve there each morning, his radio always set to BBC Radio 3, before taking his daily walk up Glastonbury Tor.

Harry produced his robust figurative work with great ease.

He continued to work creatively until the end of his life.