British sculptor, engraver, typographer, and writer. He began to earn his living as a letter cutter in 1903 and carved his first figure piece in 1910. In 1913 he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and was commissioned to make the Stations of the Cross at Westminster Cathedral, fourteen relief carvings which he carried out in 1914-18. These and the Prospero and Ariel group on Broadcasting House (1929-31) are his best-known sculptures.
Gill was one of the chief protagonists in the movement for the revival of direct carving, and his work usually has an impressive simplicity of conception; he wrote that his "inability to draw naturalistically was, instead of a drawback, no less than my salvation. It compelled me ... to concentrate upon something other than the superficial delights of fleshly appearance ... to consider the significance of things."
He tried to revive a religious attitude towards art and craftsmanship in opposition to the social and economic trends of the time, and in life, as in his work and writing, he was a vigorous advocate of a romanticized medievalism. Gill was a major figure in the revival of book design and typography. He illustrated many books, notably for the Golden Cockerel Press, and his Perpetua’ and Gill Sans-Serif’ typefaces, designed for the Monotype Corporation, are among the classics of 20th-cent. typography. His books include Christianity and Art (1927), Art (1934), and Autobiography (1940).