3. People

Members of the Guild

Name	Born	Died	Joined Guild	Left Guild	Skills	Comments
Eric Gill	1882	1940	1920 (founder)	1921 (resigned)	Sculptor, stone- cutter, engraver, font designer, writer	Inspiration behind the Guild and the best known figure.
Hilary Pepler	1878	1951	1920 (founder)	1934 (expelled)	Printer, publisher	Abandoned a career as a civil servant to follow Gill. Established a private printing press at the Guild. A man of wide-ranging interests.
Desmond Chute	1895	1962	1920 (founder)	1921 (resigned)	Poet, artist, stone-cutter, assistant to Gill	Left the Guild soon after formation to become a catholic priest. Spent his much of his life in rarefied company on the Italian Riviera.
Joseph Cribb	1892	1967	1920	1967 (died)	Sculptor, stone-cutter	Brilliant stone cutter, worked closely with Gill on many projects. Central figure in the Guild’s history.
George Maxwell	1890	1957	1921	1957 (died)	Wheelwright, builder, carpenter, loom-maker	Joined the Guild from Birmingham as the Guild’s builder and carpenter. Autodidactic distributionist and theologian. After the war concentrated on loom-making.
Philip Baker	?1900	?1975	1932	1939 (resigned)	Carpenter	Brother-in-law to George Maxwell. He continued working as a carpenter until retirement. He died on holiday in Spain, at the Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat.
Philip Hagreen	1890	1988	1930 (briefly a postulant in 1924)	1955 (retired)	Painter, engraver	An artist and engraver of great skill. When joining he Guild, he withdrew from the mainstream artistic community content to live a modest devout life.
Valentine KilBride	1897	1982	1926	1982 (died)	Weaver and dyer
Bernard Brocklehurst	1904	1996	1930	1941 (resigned)	Weaver and dyer	Worked with Valentine KilBride, but did not return after a hiatus caused by the war. Continued to work as a much-respected weaver.
Dunstan Pruden	1907	1974	1934	1974 (died)	Silversmith	Brilliant ecclesiastical silversmith; well read and cosmopolitan individual.
Mark Pepler	1911	1958	1932	1933 (resigned)	Printer, publisher	Son of Hilary Pepler. Carried on St Dominic’s Press after leaving the Guild, renamed as The Ditchling Press.
Cyril Costick			1932	1933 (resigned)	Printer	Assistant to Hilary Pepler, mainstay of the operation. Continued to work for the Ditchling Press.
John Maxwell	1928	1984	1958	1979 (retired due to ill-health)	Carpenter	Son of George Maxwell. Became a postulant in 1943 but did not become a member until his father died when he took over the workshop.
Noel Knapp Tabbenor			1968	1978 (resigned)	Stone-cutter	Assistant to Joseph Cribb, apprenticed 1936. Described by his son as follows: “He was a sculptor and letterer by trade, in either stone or wood… he worked on many churches, cathedrals and businesses throughout the south east. Long gone but never forgotten.”
Edgar Holloway	1970	1941	1950	1989 (closure)	Engraver, illustrator, painter, and sign-writer	Final chair of the Guild.
Thomas Kilbride	c1940		1960	1989 (closure)	Weaver	Assistant to his father, Valentine KilBride. Had relocated to the Northern West Highlands of Scotland well before the Guild finished. setting up with his wife as crofters, using wool from their flock of grey Gotland sheep, dyes from the local rocks and plants and weaving them on a traditional loom.
Kenneth Eager	1929	2013	1974	1989 (closure)	Stone-cutter	Assistant to Joseph Cribb, first apprenticed 1945.
Jenny KilBride	1948		1974	1989 (closure)	Weaver and Dyer	The daughter of Valentine KilBride, the first female member of the Guild.
Winefride Pruden	1913	2008	1975	1989 (closure)	Silversmith	Second wife, later the widow of Dunstan Pruden, who taught her silversmithing.
Ewan Clayton	1956		1983	1989 (closure)	Calligrapher	Grandson of Valentine KilBride, caligrapher

Postulants

Name	Born	Died	Postulant	Left	Comments
William Tull			1921	1922	Assistant to Hilary Pepler. Nothing else known to me.
David Jones	1895	1974	1924	1925	Painter, engraver, assistant to George Maxwell, later poet. An outstanding talent, bordering on genius. Other than Gill, the most important figure associated with the Guild.
Michael Sewell, later Fr Brocard Sewell	1912	2000	1932	1933	One time assistant to Hilary Pepler, later Carmelite friar and writer. Erudite figure, well known outside religious circles. Guilty of enigmatic fascist sympathies.
Aubrey David			1932	1933	Assistant to Hilary Pepler. Nothing else known to me.
John Hagreen	1919	2003	1937	1941	Printer and book-binder, son of Philip Hagreen. Ordained as priest 1952.
John Mohr			1957	1957	Assistant to George Maxwell. Nothing else known to me.

Other local artists and important figures

Name	Born	Died	Comments
Edward Johnson	1872	1944	Followed Gill from London to Ditchling where he spent the left of his life. Did not share Gill’s religious beliefs so was not involved in the formation of the Guild. Designed the Typeface for the London Underground.
Father Vincent McNab	1868	1943	Fr. McNabb was a member of the Dominican order for 58 years and served as professor of philosophy at Hawkesyard Priory, prior at Woodchester, parish priest at St. Dominic’s Priory, and prior and librarian at Holy Cross Priory, Leicester, as well as in various other official capacities for his Dominican province .Fr. McNabb was among the early Catholic ecumenists, seeking in particular to promote reunion between the Catholic Church and the Anglicans. McNabb sought also to promote a vision of social justice inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas and by Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum, which called upon “every minister of holy religion… to bring to the struggle [for broad distribution of property] the full energy of his mind and all his powers of endurance”, as well as to shore up both faith and reason against the threat of modernism. This led him to promote distributism, especially those aspects relating to land ownership, and he was a key figure in the Catholic Land Movement. He was an important influence on Gill when he first became a Catholic, although this influence waned as the Guild were not able to pursue his ideas in agricultural self-sufficiency.
Herbert Shove	1886	1943	WW1 naval officer, convert to Catholicism, Ditchling resident, distributist thinker, general eccentric and Guild supporter. Successfully returned to naval duties in WW2, notwithstanding fascist sympathies.
Ethel Mairet
Hilary Bourne
Sir Frank Brangwyn	1867	1956	A renowned Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer. His life strangely shadows that of the Guild founders. He was part of the artistic community in Hammersmith before moving to Ditchling, also he had a Catholic background. He work often celebrated Empire and so its popularity has declined over time.
John Lord
Louis Ginnet			Louis Ginnett educated at the Brighton Grammar School then in Buckingham Road, and studied art at the Brighton School of Art where in 1909 he began to teach. In 1919 Ginnett came to Ditchling. He lived in Chichester House in the High Street until his death in 1946. He became known as a portrait painter and many of his portraits show his daughter Mary as she grew up.
Charles Knight
John Skelton	1923	1999	Skelton was a nephew of Eric Gill and was first apprenticed to his uncle, shortly before Gill’s death. He continued his training under Joseph Cribb. He set up his workshop at Streat, near Ditchling and had many prestigious commissions. His daughter Helen also trained as a sculptor and works at his workshop