David was born on a Norfolk farm and educated at Bungay Grammar School, Suffolk and King's College Newcastle, University of Durham. Then, after one year with N.I.A.B. at Hendly Hall, Leeds University farm, he joined P.B.I., Cambridge in 1957. He worked in the Forage Department, mainly breeding field beans (Vicia faba), until 1992.

He demonstrated the importance of hybrid vigour in V. faba and discovered a cytoplasmic male-sterile in winter beans together with fertility restoring genes, but after much selection for stable forms of sterility, concluded there was too much reversion to fertility in the field to allow commercial F₁ hybrid varieties. So, together with Mervyn Pope and the P.B.I. team, he bred a series of composite varieties of winter beans which partially exploited heterosis and were the main varieties of winter beans recommended by N.I.A.B. until after 2000. This work continued under Unilever, Monsanto and then Wherry and Sons.

David was active and well known at breeding stations in Europe and at I.C.A.R.D.A. (Syria, Egypt and Sudan). After retirement in 1992 he continued breeding broad beans (V. faba major), particularly for dwarf growth habit. He also observed pollination of beans by solitary bees.

He leaves his widow, Marcia and two daughters: Heather, a biochemist, and Sylvia, a G.P., and four grandchildren.