David Guy Barnabus Kindersley
Born 11 June 1915
Died 2 February 1995
Active: 1932 - 1995
Country of birth and death: England
Stone carver, letter cutter, typeface designer
Born in Codicote, Hertfordshire. His grandfather was Sir Edmund Harry Elton, arts and crafts potter. After leaving school at fifteen he went to Paris and took drawing classes at the Académie Julian. Kindersely also worked for a firm of Italian marble carvers, carving in stone forms that had been modelled in clay by established sculptors. Between 1934-6 he worked at Pigotts for Eric Gill, this was not a formal apprenticeship although the work of the younger artist was often described as such.
After leaving Pigotts, Kindersley planned to become a sculptor, however an abundance of letter-cutting work led him to specialise in this field. In the post-war period he became involved with designing typefaces, an adviser to the Shell film unit from 1949-58 and consultant to Letraset International from 1964-88. Kindersley was also president of the Crafts Council of Great Britain in 1963. He settled in Cambridge in the 1940s and lived there until his death. His second marriage was married to the artist, Barbara Pym Eyre Petrie.
Wealth at death: £125,000 0s. 0d.
Probate date: 18 September 1995
Institutional and Business Connections
Member of The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
1946 (Presumed)
Craft memmber 1946.
Personal and Professional Connections
Apprenticed to (Arthur) Eric Rowton Gill
1934 - 1936
The term apprentice was used to describe Kindersley's role at Gill's Pigotts workshop, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, even though studio assistant may have been a more accurate description of his role.
Sources
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Members and Craftsmen
1946 (Probable)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Lottie Hoare, ‘Kindersley, David Guy Barnabas (1915–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58089, accessed 20 July 2009]
Citing this record
'David Guy Barnabus Kindersley', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1210259652, accessed 02 Jun 2023]
