David was born in Brighton where he lived and worked for most of his life. Growing up on a council estate, David took part in typical childhood activities such as scrumping, winding up his younger sibling and building airfix models that he hung from his ceiling. As a young lad he started his hobby of collecting by accumulating postage stamps, cigarette cards, dinky toys and more. This sparked an interest in David which stayed with him for the rest of his life, expanding vastly as he grew older. He also had a particular love of his local area and environment, Brighton and Hove, where he could be ‘at one’ with nature, easily identifying the local flora and fauna.

David left school at 17 and was appointed a trainee accountant at Brighton Borough Council. He studied hard and after a few years and numerous exams he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Despite commitments of work and study, David still found time to become a keen sportsman and was an accomplished runner and footballer. He was, of course, also a lifelong supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion (The Seagulls), watching the likes of Brian Clough and Alan Mullery in his earlier years and more recently, at the AMEX Stadium whilst the Seagulls were in the Premier League. 

In 1974 David was appointed as a Senior Accountant at a large, locally based company where, apart from a few years when he was seconded to the World Bank, he remained until retirement. His career progressed and he rose to the position of Director of Customer Services. David, along with his friend, Frank, took responsibility of organising annual summer hog roasts as treasurer of the Sports and Social Club. In this role he was able to take his “good accountancy practice” seriously as trying to get funds out of him was akin to getting blood out of a stone. This is something his wife and daughters experienced also, although no expense was spared on wanted collectables.

David’s interests matured over the years into antiques, and he was particularly proud of his collections of flintlock pistols, silver snuff boxes, African art, canes, taxidermy and sailing ships in glass cases to name a few. His interests gradually developed into arts and crafts, art nouveau and art deco. He loved paintings of ships and coastal scenes and was also very fond of paintings of the old Brighton Chain pier.

During David’s years of secondment to the World Bank, he was sent to New York, Pakistan, Vietnam, Nepal and Nigeria where he lived for 3 years. He became fascinated with African culture and soon started assembling a collection of tribal art including Zulu spears, masks and numerous East African headrests. As the African tribes were gradually converted to Christianity by the missionaries, the chiefs were encouraged to dispose of their ancient witch doctor artefacts thus enabling David to extend his collection even further. He was always keen to explain to friends that much of his tribal art had been stored in the tribal cookhouse and still retained traces of original cooking smells. David was able to further his interest and knowledge by reading many books on African art and culture. This interest in Africa later expanded into holidays to the Gambia with his wife and two daughters where David was able to revisit the culture and climate of Africa, teaching his daughters the art of haggling.

One of the Zulu spears came in very handy in later years when David encountered a burglar in his house and the sight of David brandishing a 7 foot long spear successfully scared the intruder away.

David, together with his kindred spirited friend Frank, studied Newlyn and St Ives paintings for over a year and became very knowledgeable on the subject. David particularly loved the Stanhope Forbes school and the Lamoma Cove colony of pre WW1 years and managed to acquire numerous paintings by artists including J Park and I Wallis. David and Frank both loved antique fairs and never missed an Ardingly fair in 30 years. They also regularly visited Kempton Park, Sandown, Newark and twice weekly, accompanied by another friend Dave, visited the renowned car boot sales at Ford, West Sussex. They were also well known for frequenting in local charity shops and the trip became connoisseurs of the ‘traditional full English breakfast’.

Throughout his life David was fascinated by trains, particularly the history of the Southern Region and he constructed from scratch numerous scale model locomotives firstly taking over the kitchen breakfast bar, then later building in his converted outhouse named ‘David’s Workshop’. He also became fascinated by working model steam engines and acquired many of these for his collection.

David chaired the Finance Committee for the East Sussex Scouts and was a Trustee. He was proudly awarded an Award of Merit for his services.

David was very happily married to Alison and they settled into Rottingdean, a beautiful village by the sea. The family enjoyed many dog walks along the undercliff and up to the windmill. Following the birth of their daughters, Sarah and Rachel, a new dimension of collecting was born - ‘teddy bears’ - which the girls still treasure to this day. David was also overjoyed when his grandson Bertie was born in 2019, ‘boys toys’ then became the new attraction. Unfortunately David died before his granddaughter Evie was born but everyone knows how much he would have been the doting grandad to her.

Following David’s death in 2020 Alison and the girls have now decided, after much heart searching, to sell the majority of his collection. There is absolutely no doubt that whoever becomes the new owners of these antiques will be rewarded with items of quality that have been personally identified, acquired and loved by David over the years which are guaranteed to bring pleasure for many years to come.

Written by a close family member