Robert Watson Boyd

The Tees once had its professional sculling champion - Robert Watson Boyd - whose gravestone in a Middlesbrough cemetery is quite ornate. Though not of the same standard or as famous as his Tyneside counterparts his funeral was attended by thousands.

Boyd raced Thomas Hanlan for the championship of the world and there are commemorative glasses that were cast for the race. Glasses were made for another of Boyd’s races but they are rare.

Boyd featured in a race involving Alexander Hogarth who was immortalised in a Joe Wilson song “Champion of the Wear”.


24th March 1877
Bells Life reported:
Robert Watson Boyd competed in and won the Newcastle Sculling Challenge Cup

28th May 1877
R.W. Boyd beat J. Higgins for the Championship of England over the Putney to Mortlake course

8th October 1877
J. Higgins beat R.W. Boyd for the Championship of England over the Putney to Mortlake course

14th January 1878
J. Higgins beat R.W. Boyd for the Championship of England over the Tyne Championship course by way of a foul.

13th August 1881
Bell's Life reported: The Chinnery Prizes - although he has not had so many opportunities to get fit as those he will probably meet in the Senior Chinnery Prize on the Thames, John Hawdon of Delaval is well forward in condition. and is rowing in such good form that unless he gets chopped by a flyer in his first heat, he will take some doing. Hawdon has succeeded in obtaining a week's holiday from his employers to row in this competition, but we understand he will be and absentee from the Sportsman's Cup contest, as he cannot be spared from his work. R.W. Boyd of Middlesbrough has undergone one of the real old-fashioned preparations for both engagements and E. McGregor, as of old, has brought him into grand trim. In order to finish his work on the Thames, Boyd and his trainer intended to leave Middlesbrough on Thursday morning for the White Hart, Barnes, where quarters have been secured for them.