John Skelton was first and foremost a sculptor and letter cutter, but his work embraced a wide range of other disciplines: design, teaching, heraldry, calligraphy, metalwork and water colours.

Born in 1923 in Glasgow, he was educated in Norwich and Coventry before a brief apprenticeship with his uncle, Eric Gill.

Immediately thereafter John assisted Joseph Cribb and made his first sculpture (Santa Lucia) in 1949 as a gift to his parents.

Army training and war service in the Far East occupied him from 1942- 47.

On his return he spent three years with Bridgeman's Monumental Masons in Lewes, Sussex before setting up his own workshop in 1950 in Burgess Hill, Sussex.

Having married Myrtle Martin in 1948, his son Jonathan was born in 1949 and daughter Helen Mary in 1951. His third child Rebecca was born in 1968.

Throughout the 1950s commissions were primarily for churches, schools and a few private clients.  His style was in the Eric Gill mode - sinuous hair on sculptures and fine Roman capitals in letting.  He worked competently in both wood and stone.  Though most sculpture was in relief he was beginning to carve small scale three dimensional works.  He took on his first apprentice, Jack Trowbridge, in 1953.

In 1958 he moved to a large farmhouse with a stable block in rural Streat, Sussex and took on a second apprentice, Pul Where.  The stable was converted to a large workshop with good height and lifting gear was installed for heavy blocks of stone.  The move to this space gave John a new lease of life.  A steady increase in commissions started arriving and he felt able to express himself more freely.

Significantly he began to experiment with materials such as copper and fibreglass.  He also acquired silversmithing skills, which resulted in him making a crozier and other items for churches.  John began in earnest to create sculpture reflecting his own beliefs and emotions, experimenting with form and abstraction.

Consequently, sales, commissions and exhibitions followed.  The practice of life drawing in pencil and chalk was a discipline that he maintained all his life.

In 1973 he took on his third apprentice, his daughter Helen Mary.

In 1989 he was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List and began a years "Artist in residence" at Bishop Otter College, Chichester.

He mounted a large retrospective exhibition in 1993 at home to mark his 70th birthday.

From 1994 onwards, after 47 years of sheer physical labour, dynamism and creativity, he suffered increasing ill health, resulting in his death in November 1999. John Skelton's work practices and philosophy continue with his daughter Helen Mary at Skelton Workshops.

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