David was the eldest of four children, David, Kay, Peter and Liz. His parents, Gladys and Gordon, were involved in the Oxford Group when he was very young and he strove to follow the teachings of Frank Buchman all his life.
From 1944 to 1947, he was in the Royal Navy as a coder. (Sat beside the radio operator who took down the Morse Code messages in scrambled words which the coder then translated into readable English. They shared a bucket for seasickness!)
After the war, he studied French and Philology at Oriel College, Oxford and after a period of travelling with “The Forgotten Factor” in Germany he became a teacher of French and German in various schools. David was open with his pupils about his faith and that led to some profound exchanges.
Later on, he also taught English as a Foreign Language, starting with Hungarian refugees who had fled their country in 1956. He often taught the wives of Japanese businessmen who had been assigned to Britain for a spell of two to three years. EFL was a new concept, so David and his colleagues made up their own teaching aids. In total David was involved in language teaching for 36 years.
He was always interested in other countries and peoples, and always keen to learn more about language and music. He played the piano and clarinet and sang in church choirs.
He was privileged to visit Caux many times during the summer conferences and used his language skills at the reception desk. A Czechoslovakian guest was a problem until David thought to try Russian, which he was attempting to learn at the time.
David and Kay, also a teacher, were members of the editorial board of the educational broadsheet Polestar. Its aim was to promote education and in particular, the fundamental moral and spiritual beliefs of MRA.
With other French-speakers who were involved with Polestar, David attended meetings in France of l’Association pour l'Eveil à la Responsabilité à l’Ecole (Association for the Awakening to Responsibility at School or AERE) which had similar aims.
Any further information including a photograph would be a great help
