Jones, David, 1895-1974

Born in Brockley, Kent on November 1, 1895, Walter David Jones, known as David, was the third child of James Jones, a Welshman by birth, and Alice Ann Bradshaw, an Englishwoman and an amateur watercolor artist. Jones's Welsh heritage was a large influence throughout his life and work.

He enrolled in the Camberwell School of Art at the age of fourteen. When World War I began, he enlisted in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and remained in the trenches until wounded in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

In 1921 he became a Roman Catholic. In 1922 he joined Eric Gill's Guild of Saint Joseph and Saint Dominic at Ditchling, Sussex, where he learned wood and copper engraving. Jones developed a close friendship with Gill and his family, and relocated to Capel-y-Ffin, Wales in 1924 following their move there. Jones continued engraving, and also worked at the Benedictine community on Caldey Island. He was engaged to the Gills' daughter, Petra; but their engagement was broken off in 1927. Jones's friend Rene Hague married Petra's sister Joan, and the three were to remain close friends.

After the Gills left Wales for Buckinghamshire in 1927, Jones divided his time between their new home, his parents' home in Kent, and the residence of his friend and patron Helen Sutherland in Northumberland. The period from 1926-1933 was a prolific one for Jones's art, during which he produced engravings, illustrations, watercolor paintings, and drawings His work was included in several exhibitions at galleries in London and abroad.

In 1927, Jones began writing and started what would become In parenthesis; seinnyessit e gledyf ym penn mameu (1937), a combination of prose and poetry about World War I. Although it was not a commercial success, in 1938 it won the Hawthornden Prize. In 1952, Jones published the long poem The Anathemata, which was awarded the Russell Loines Memorial Award for poetry by the American National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1954. He was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1955.

In 1962, Jones moved to Harrow, where he lived a retired life but continued to correspond extensively with friends. In 1970, he suffered a stroke and a broken leg. He moved to the Calvary Nursing Home, where he died on October 28, 1974.