A unique tribute to a good egg, Prof Stephen Hawking

But creation lost out in family competition to Egg Sheeran

Lest it be forgotten – not that it will be – Prof Hawking had a great sense of humour, with turns in The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory among others.

Wasn’t it the great man himself who said in The Simpsons episode: “Don’t worry, Lisa, sometimes it’s the smartest among us who can be the most childish”?

To celebrate his more light-hearted side, the Shelton family came up with an Easter Hawking egg – it wasn’t perhaps an eggs-act likeness, but the thought was there.

Patrick Shelton, 28, explains: “Every Easter my family holds an egg decorating contest. It’s very competitive. This year, I decided to decorate mine as a tribute to Stephen Hawking. It got a lot of votes from friends and family, but sadly not enough to win the day and I lost to my sister’s ‘Egg Sheeran’.”

The voting was conducted on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

“We just asked all our friends and family, including my boyfriend’s cricket club. 127 votes in total,” says Jenny Shelton, the Gamlingay-based mastermind behind the Egg Sheeran artistic triumph. “Some late votes from Madlingley cricket club swung the vote in my favour. I am forever grateful to those great lads...”

Needless to say, the rest of the family wasn’t thrilled to have seen their contributions wiped out by the redheaded songsmith. Their actual thoughts are not recorded – although the picture of their despair probably conveys the gist of it – but the Easter Sunday gallery shows how hard this family worked to get their artistic side over to a wider audience, so thanks to the Shell-ton family for this unique tribute.