Tribute provided by Carolyn Keep.

David was born in Bedford and attended Bedford Modern School. During National Service, he trained as a Russian translator, followed by monitoring air traffic in Berlin. At New College, Oxford, he graduated in History. To train for the Methodist ministry, he moved to Wesley House, Cambridge, and read Theology at Fitzwilliam College. On 1 August 1962 he married Carolyn Herbert and they moved to Zürich, where David researched Henry Bullinger, a sixteenth-century Protestant reformer and the subject of his Sheffield PhD. 

David served in the Coalville Circuit, Leicestershire, then Belper, Derbyshire. In 1969 he became Head of Religious Education at Pilgrim School, Bedford. Nicholas and Philippa were born in 1966 and 1969. Appointed to Rolle Teacher Training College in Exmouth, Devon, in 1971, he lectured on all aspects of Religious Education. An enforced move to history was followed by two years as Head of Resources. 

Settling in Woodbury, David edited the village magazine for twenty years. He was a governor of Exmouth Community College and a valued trustee of the Devon Historic Churches Trust. He served on the Exeter Prison Parole Review Committee, the London Schools Examination Committee, chaired the West Country Writers’ Association three times and organised school speaking competitions for the Exeter branch of the English Speaking Union. Stamps, books, transport and politics were always important interests. 

In 1989, David returned to part-time ministry in the Totnes Methodist Circuit. For the same sixteen years, he was an officiating naval chaplain at the Royal Marines Training Centre. David accepted the increasing restrictions of Parkinson’s with stoicism but particularly missed singing with Clyst Valley Choral Society. He died peacefully at home with family around him. Tributes speak of his gift for making life-long friends and how he lived his Christian faith.