BOYD, ARTHUR MERRIC (18621940)

was born at Dunedin, New Zealand, on 19 March 1862. He went to Australia and in January 1886 married Emma Minna à'Beckett, also an artist, daughter of the Hon. W. A. C. à'Beckett of Melbourne. Proceeding to England they lived for a time at Westbury, Wiltshire, and in 1891 husband and wife each had a picture in the Royal Academy exhibition. Boyd travelled and painted a good deal on the continent, returned to Australia about the end of 1893, and lived mostly at Sandringham and other suburbs of Melbourne for the rest of his life. He occasionally sent good work to the exhibitions of the Victorian Artists' Society, but never mixed much in the artistic life of his time. Mrs Boyd died at Melbourne on 13 September 1936 and her husband in July 1940. Each is represented by a picture in the national gallery at Melbourne. Of their sons, the eldest, Theodore Penleigh Boyd, is noticed separately. Another son, Martin à'Beckett Boyd, born in 1893, became well-known as a writer of fiction under the name of Martin Mills, and a third son. Merric Boyd, did some interesting work in pottery.