By his partner, Louise Cavanagh
David died very unexpectedly after a short illness on 4 June 2023, aged 56. He was born in Hong Kong in 1966, but the family returned to England in 1969, following his father’s untimely death, and settled in Surrey. He went to Kingswood House prep school and won a scholarship to Epsom.
Not a familiar figure on the pitches, David distinguished himself as a ‘captain of sport avoidance’, score-boarding for cricket matches and printing rugby fixtures lists. But he was a very enthusiastic member of the Sixth Form Culture Club led by Rob Worrall and Jonathan Cooke. This introduced him to opera and visits to National Trust properties. The Masters would have been amazed to know what a formative experience that would be.
David got a First in English Literature, but was always interested in finance and joined Touche Ross (later Deloitte’s) to train as an accountant.
After qualifying and transferring to Corporate Finance, he was seconded to Hong Kong in 1995. Always fascinated by Asia, he used his downtime to travel widely in the region. He returned briefly to Deloitte’s in the UK before joining ANZ Investment Bank in 1997.
David was Director of Global M&A when he left the company in 2007, and very proud of the fact that the London team had concluded transactions worth over US$2.5bn during his time there. But with daughter Izzy’s arrival in 2006, it had become increasingly clear that a career in international mergers and acquisitions was not particularly compatible with family life. A new challenge was required… and the National Trust was looking for a tenant for their recently acquired Modernist house and garden in Esher, The Homewood, designed by the architect Patrick Gwynne.
Passionate about the arts, architecture, conservation, education and the environment, David took on non-executive roles with the British Museum (as Deputy Chair of the Board of Friends), the National Trust (as a Member of Council) and the Twentieth Century Society. He was also a regular judge of architectural awards for RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects) and Sussex Heritage. However, it was as tenant of The Homewood, where the family settled in 2007, that his life and career was taken in a completely different direction.
He became The Homewood’s chief ambassador, advocate, volunteer manager, head gardener, project manager and co-ordinator, and was fully immersed in all aspects of caring for the property. Opening the house to the public, a drawer full of press cuttings in the James Bond-style study, numerous photo-shoots and extraordinary events such as the filming of episodes of Miss Marple and Endeavour for ITV and the Netflix movie, The Old Guard, all form part of life at The Homewood. But it was the garden David found the most rewarding, always accompanied by Annie, the sheepdog.
David was a very positive, energetic and compassionate person of immense integrity and generosity, who will be much missed by all who knew him. He is survived by me, our daughter, Izzy, and his sister, Karen Blackman, née Scott, (White House 1983-85).
