Tributes paid to explorer and artist couple (From Salisbury Journal)

Tributes paid to explorer and artist couple

9:46am Friday 17th February 2012 in News By Hannah White

TRIBUTES have been paid to a couple who died in a car crash on the A36.

Explorer, photographer and inventor Antony Barrington-Brown and his sculptor wife Althea were killed near Upton Lovell when their Ford Focus collided with an 18-tonne tipper lorry.

The couple had lived in Upton Lovell for many years and friends and neighbours said the couple were very well known in the village as they were deeply involved in the community.

Reverend Ian Duff, a retired vicar who lives in the village, said: “They were much loved by everyone in the village, and people here are still in shock about what happened.”

Mrs Barrington-Brown, 75, used her maiden name Wynne in her professional life and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

She had her work displayed in exhibitions around the world, and was commissioned for works in London developments and parks, for hospitals and on board the QEII cruise liner.

Her 84-year-old husband, whom she married in 1982, was also a designer, sculptor and engineer, who built the house they lived in 11 years ago.

Mr Barrington-Brown photographed one of the most iconic images of the last century. The photograph of DNA researchers James Watson and Francis Crick with their double helix model at Cambridge University in 1953 now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

He was awarded an MBE for services to heritage and to the community in Codford and was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Between them, the couple had seven children and eight grandchildren.

Painter Nick Andrew, of Crockerton, organises the Wylye Valley Art Trail which Mrs Barrington-Brown has taken part in since it began in 2001.

He said: “It is a terrible shame, they were both well-known in the art community.”

A police investigation into the accident, which happened at about 3.20pm on January 24, is ongoing.

The driver of the tipper lorry, a 56-year-old Melksham man, had minor injuries and was treated at the scene by ambulance staff.