Darsie Rawlins

Born 27 March 1912
Died 28 January 2003

Active: 1930 - 1962

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, letter cutter

Born in Kentmere, Westmorland. He was the son of George and Magdalen Rawlins, silversmiths trained at Liverpool School of Art. His parents named him after the artist Darsie Japp, a contemporary of Stanley Spencer's at the Slade.

Rawlins trained at the Royal College of Art (1930-4). After the Second World war, during which he served with the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve in Coastal Command, Rawlins taught at High Wycombe College of Art.

He worked primarily to commission as an ecclesiastical sculptor and letter cutter, exhibiting only occasionally. Rawlins' preferred medium was stone, however he also modelled, carved in wood and cast works in bronze and resin. He was greatly influenced by Eric Gill and was friends with two of the latter's assistants, Lawrie Cribb and John Skelton. He died in Oxford.

Some of Rawlins' major works are to be found at: Denbighshire Technical College, Wrexham; Gloster Aircraft Company Memorial, Gloucester Cathedral; Hampshire County Offices, Winchester; Princesshay, Exeter; the Royal Tank Regiment Memorial, St Peter-upon-Cornhill; Staines Municipal Offices; and Tewkesbury Abbey.

Citing this record

'Darsie Rawlins', 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=msib4_1273849641, accessed 10 Jun 2023]