Sculptor and designer in various materials, and teacher, married to the painter Marianne Hellwig John. He was born in Port au Prince, Haiti. John studied drawing with Edna Manley in Jamaica, 1943–6; painting at Birmingham College of Art, with Bernard Fleetwood-Walker, 1946–8; and in London wood-carving with Anton Dapre, 1948–50, and stone-cutting and lettering under Freda Skinner in the sculpture school at Wimbledon School of Art, 1950–1. John became an artist-sculptor-designer for churches from 1950, teaching at the Blue Coat School, 1967; Mary Ward College, 1968; and Shiplake College, 1969–78. A 1974 Churchill Fellowship permitted a two-month tour of post-war European churches. Numerous churches in the United Kingdom hold John’s work, which is also in Winchester and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedrals; Harare Cathedral, Zimbabwe; and the English College, Rome, Italy.