John Stephen Skelton MBE FRBS (1923 – 1999)

John Skelton (not to be confused with the artist John Francis Skelton) was a British letter-cutter and sculptor and nephew of Eric Gill to whom he was first apprenticed shortly before Gill's death. He continued his training under Joseph Cribb.

Born in Glasgow into a church of England family, he began his schooling in Norwich as a cathedral chorister retaining a deep spiritual feeling from this early experience which can be seen though his work.

He later studied at Coventry School of Art before commencing his apprenticeships centred around the Gill family at Ditchling Common, Sussex.

War intervened briefly and he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and served in India, Burma, Malaya and Siam. Later, he returned to Sussex, and in 1947 continued his study of stone carving under Percival Bridgman, the general mason of Lewes.

Skelton established his own workshop in 1956.

His public works can be found in English Cathedrals including St Paul’s, Chichester, Norwich, Salisbury and Winchester.

A memorial to the generals of World War II is in St Paul's Cathedral Crypt. A tablet commemorating a member of the ship's company of the Mary Rose is in Portsmouth Cathedral.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1963. He was elected as Master of the Art Workers' Guild in 1985, and was appointed an MBE in 1989.

Skelton believed in the importance of craftsmanship and drawing as the starting base for all artists.

Light Grain Wood