William ‘Bill’ Thomas Favata (1933-1998) artist, Master Mariner and lecturer at the School of Maritime Studies, Plymouth. Bill was the Chairman of the Plymouth Society of Artists (1992-1998) and member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. He exhibited predominantly in South West England and London, notably at The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Bill experimented with different mediums, exploring colour, texture and form through oil painting, sculpture, ceramics and print making. Bill’s statuette ‘The Nightwatchman’ was the model for The Watchkeeper, the Plymouth Merchant Navy Monument located on Plymouth Hoe. Bill created the statuette in the early 1970s as a demonstration piece for the liberal arts classes he taught at the School of Maritime Studies, Plymouth. Members of the Plymouth Merchant Navy Monument Committee (2014-2021), who were former colleagues of Bill’s, remembered his statuette and proposed that the monument sculpture be based on it. ‘The Nightwatchman’ is held by the University of Plymouth.

Bill studied portraiture at Glasgow School of Art but was largely self-taught. He taught art for a number of years at the Plymouth Art Centre. Bill’s greatest inspiration and source of strength was his wife and collaborator, sculptor Frances May Favata. They devoted themselves to the arts for the duration of their life-long marriage.