Born in Tooting, South West London in 1940, David first got hooked on farming when he was evacuated to Suffolk during the war.
He moved with his family to the Island when he was ten years old, his father a tenant farmer.
After leaving school, David worked at Park Farm and as a young man earned cigarette money working on a farm in the Freshwater in the evenings.
After a TB outbreak in 1957, David trained and went on to make a living in the motor trade.