New Houses, Eastbourne

Mason was born in Newport, Gwent, where he studied at the village school. In the 1930s he attended Newport School of Art and the Royal College of Art where he worked in the School of Engraving under Robert Austin and Malcolm Osborne. After leaving the Royal College of Art he took up a teaching post at Leeds College of Art. During World War II he served in the Military Police before transferring to the RAF at Medmenham where he was attached to the model making section of the Central Photographic Interpretation Unit. After the war he returned to Leeds for a short time before becoming Vice-Principal of Eastbourne School of Art (1950-52). In 1952 he moved to Birmingham College of Art where he remained for the rest of his teaching career, finally becoming Head of the School of Painting. He retired to Shirenewton in South Wales where he died in 1972. Gilbert’s work included etchings, pastels and watercolour and ink drawings which he usually treated with a dark varnish. He was an Associate member of the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers and a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. He exhibited in London and the provinces and works by him are in the collections of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne and elsewhere.