As I sat down in the pew for Norman Ackroyd’s memorial service, I was told by my neighbour that the photograph reproduced in the programme (by Paul Tozer) told one everything one needed to know about him:-

A big smoker, years of nicotine had dried out his skin.  When I arrived at the RA in 2007, meetings of Council would have a cigarette break.

The odd thing was that I had known him a bit in the 1970s as near neighbours in Southwark – he was already installed in Morocco Street.

What I hadn’t known was his rich frame of cultural reference, his deep knowledge of poetry, alongside his passion for the west coast of Ireland and his extraordinary and inspirational skill as a printmaker.  I only knew him later as the committed guardian of the RA Laws which he knew far better than I ever could or did.