OXFORD University student William King was bitterly disappointed when illness forced him to pull out of the annual Boat Race against Cambridge.

But the Oxford crew softened the blow when they won the race and then had the winning boat cut up and turned into a clock, which they presented to the unfortunate Mr King.

Now, 125 years later, the 5ft 10 inches high 30-hour longcase clock — which Mr King owned and treasured for the rest of his life — is up for sale.

It is expected to fetch up to £1,000 at Bonhams in London on March 2.

Bonhams director and clocks and barometers expert James Stratton said: “It was made from the boat which won one of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Races of the 1880s.

“Mr King, at that time a student at Oxford, was to have been one of the crew, but he was taken ill the day before and was unable to row.

“His fellow students had this clock made from the boat and presented it to him as a consolation.”

It is not certain which year this happened.

However, it is known that Mr King, who was born in Durham in 1864, obtained a BA at Keble College in 1887 — the year Oxford and the rest of the country celebrated Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (50 years on the throne,1837-1887) — and that Oxford won the Boat Race on March 28, 1885 and also for four years running, from 1880 to 1883.

After leaving Oxford, Mr King became a vicar and worked in Yorkshire, and in Natal, South Africa, before ending up as Rector at Old Woodhouse, Leicestershire.

His father, Charles King, was also a clergyman and an inspector of schools.

After his death, the Rev King’s beloved Oxford clock was sold for just £4 10s (£4.50p), which is confirmed by a receipt pasted inside the clock door.

But unfortunately little else is known about the clock’s owner, or what made him tick.