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

Interested in art from an early age, Jones enrolled in the Camberwell School of Art at fourteen. In 1915 he left to enlist in the Royal Welch Fusiliers to serve in World War II, where he was wounded in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. He served on the Western Front until 1918.

In 1921 Jones converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1922 he joined Eric Gill's Guild of Saint Joseph and Saint Dominic at Ditchling, Sussex, where he learned wood and copper engraving. He illustrationed for fine print presses including St. Dominic's Press and The Golden Cockeral Press, and his projects included The Book of Jonah (1926) and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1929). 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 from 1924, but she ended it in 1927. Jones also developed a lifelong friendship with Gill's business partner Rene Hague.

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

In 1930 Jones gave up engraving due to eye problems, working on watercolor painting and writing. In 1927 he started writing 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 1932 and again in 1947 Jones suffered psychological breakdowns after periods of intense creative output, following which he largely gave up art and had to reduce the pace of his writing. In 1952, he 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.

Sources:

Blamires, David. David Jones: Artist and Writer. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1971.

Grisewood, Harman, ed. Epoch and Artist: Selected Writings by David Jones. New York: Chilmark Press, 1959.

Hague, Rene, ed. Dai Greatcoat: A self-portrait of David Jones in his letters. London: Faber and Faber, 1980.

Rees, Samuel. David Jones. London: Twayne Publishers, 1978.