The first 'Cryséde' trainee, he joined in 1920 at the age of fourteen, and under Alec George WALKER's direction quickly showed great aptitude for printing, soon becoming proficient. By 1923, when the complex 'new' designs were introduced, he was doing most of the printing and was put in charge of the section when the firm moved to St Ives. His brother Lloyd GILBERT also became a silk printer.