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 | |
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. As of 2020, he still lives there with his wife, earning their living by 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 | |
Ewan Clayton
| 1956 | | 1983 | 1989 (closure) | Calligrapher | |