On Friday 23rd January, the Ingram family invited their friends to join them in the parish church of St Magdalene, Ecton in Northamptonshire to share in a celebratory thanksgiving service for Rodney Ingram. Sheila, his wife, daughter Louise and son Matthew chose not to have flowers in order to make a tangible difference to two of the organisations that were important and very dear to Rodney - BirdLife Malta and Ecton Village Hall. Rodney Ingram, an interior designer and an artist, particularly of birds, nature and countryside, passed away on 6th January at the age of 73, after a long illness.
Rodney Ingram visited Malta for the first time with his family for a holiday in 1973. That was the beginning of a life-long friendship with several members of the Malta Ornithological Society (now BirdLife Malta) and annual family holidays in their quaint, old house in Għarb. He loved Gozo dearly. He always supported bird conservation and was very generous, particularly in illustrating various publications of the society with several line drawings and coloured plates.
Rodney, together with his family, was so happy and gratified to be present in 1976 at the launch of the first book on birds in Maltese, L-Agħsafar, which he designed and illustrated with coloured plates. He never wanted to receive any payment for his excellent work and was always delighted that all proceeds went to MOS for bird conservation in Malta. Such was his generosity towards the Society's cause that his latest contribution, a few months before he passed away, was a watercolour drawing of Malta's national bird - the Blue Rock Thrush - which will be sold at an auction, the proceeds of which will go to BirdLife Malta.
Rodney will be missed by all his Maltese friends, who send their sincere condolences to his wife Sheila and his family.
Joe Sultana