Part 2 (Obituaries) - King's College - University of Cambridge

instead. It was not easy, however, to change University courses midstream, and
as his father had made sacrifices to support him through his studies, David
was unwilling to disappoint him; so he continued with Medicine and
qualified. He worked for a while at a hospital in Glasgow, where tuberculosis
was quite common. He gained considerable experience of the disease and the
response of sufferers to new drug treatments, to the extent that he contracted
TB himself and had to spend a time recuperating in Midhurst, Sussex, where
he thoroughly appreciated the beautiful countryside. In Glasgow he met his
future wife, Margaret, a bright and ambitious worker in the hotel trade.
David’s brother John was his senior by only nine months, and they were very
close. John’s death in action as a bomber pilot in 1941 hit David, and the rest
of the family, very hard. David began to suffer from depression, which forced
him to leave the army during the war.Very little was known at the time about
depressive illness. Sufferers tended to be stigmatized as lazy. Electro-convulsive
treatment, used in severe cases such as David’s, was very aggressive, and antidepressant
drugs were primitive, causing long-term side-effects and
permanent damage. Unfortunately David had to fight bouts of depression for
the rest of his life.
He gave up his career as a practising doctor and turned to laboratory research
into, amongst other things, orange juice. He worked as Medical Consultant at
Herts Pharmaceuticals, and from 1956 was a scientist in the Government
Scientific Civil Service, at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Margaret’s career brought the couple to the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly,
and they made their home in a flat there after their marriage in 1962.
Depression forced David into early retirement in the 1970s. He loved classical
music on the radio and at concerts, liked the big band music of the 1930s and
always listened to the Christmas Eve carol service broadcast from King’s. His
father had been a King’s chorister, and David too had a very pleasant singing
voice. When Margaret retired, they moved to a very cosy house in Putney
where they enjoyed offering hospitality. David liked eating out and
entertaining others; his favourite meal was a hot curry followed by sherry
trifle, with a single modest gin and tonic. He and Margaret took many
Continental holidays, and he was a keen birdwatcher and rambler when his
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OBITUARIES