Crawford, John Edward

John Crawford, west window (1950), Church of St Mary Aldermary, London EC4
Photo: Peter Hildebrand

John Edward Crawford (1897-1982) was a wood carver, stone carver, sculptor, designer, stained glass artist and teacher. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to John H M Bonner (1875-1917) in painting and stained glass, before serving in the First World War. After the war he worked on a freelance basis for Lowndes & Drury, and it is through that connection that he met Martin Travers, with whom he would work as sculptor and chiefs assistant until Travers untimely death in 1948. Following Travers’ death Crawford and Lawrence Lee separately finished the Studio’s outstanding commissions, with Crawford taking the furnishings and a share of the windows.

After Travers’ death Crawford worked with Faith Craft, D Marion Grant and Lowndes & Drury, as well as continuing in his teaching role at the RCA, where he was the technical instructor in stained glass from the mid-1920s to 1959.

Sources:
Martin Travers His Life and work by Michael Yelton (Spire Books, 2016)
John Crawford in Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851-1951