Eric GILL, a master craftsman as designer and sculptor, a son of the Rev. Arthur Gill curate of St. John's, Bognor, from 1899-1914. One of his earliest commissions, unrecorded in any list of his work, was the cutting in stone of four bosses on the chancel screen at St. John's, representing the four Evangelists.

It is good to know that the diocesan authorities are aware of this and that Gill's sculpture may not end up as rubble in London Road when the church’s demolition gets underway. As well as the stone carvings on the screen, Gill trimmed to point the pilasters each side of the chancel arch.

He was in his early twenties and had just started work in London, returning on weekends to Bognor where the family had moved from Chichester.

There were eleven children and it was quite a struggle for Mr. & Mrs. Gill to bring them up. Much kindness was shown by the Vicar, The Rev. R. T. Lea, and it was he who appreciated Eric's skill and commissioned him to do the stone carving, and also to design a pictorial cover for the parish magazine and a notice-board for, I think, for St. Wilfrid’s.

The family lived for eight years at "Strathmore", High St. (east of Lyon St) and then at 32 Glamis Street Eric's sister, Enid, once told me of him sculpturing figures in sand on the beach.

Their mother, who had been a professional singer, worked hard to keep them all neat and respectable on very little money. She was quite a disciplinarian. The boys could bathe on Sundays, but not the girls.

Their father was well liked in the town, though was not one of the world's great preachers. A memory of him is that he would give out his text, say a few words and then produce a paper and say ‘As .I was reading in this week's Church Times ..:' and read the congregation the printed sermon.

Eric had studied art at Chichester. His brothers went to school in Bognor. One of them, MacDonald went to the Royal Naval Academy Victoria Drive (now Street Court) and became a notable cartographer, whose picture-maps were loved by the public, He and Eric jointly -designed a brass memorial tablet, now in St. Wilfrid’s, to one-of the boys of the Naval Academy who lost his life at sea in 1904.

The Stations-of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral and the figures of Prospero and Ariel on Broadcasting House are, nowadays. the most well` known of Gill's sculpture, but Chichester R e c o r d Office houses the great Memorial Collection of his work, over 250 items, covering every aspect of the immense contribution he made to the world of art.