About Our New Master

David was born in Budleigh Salterton in Devon in1945; following a temporary evacuation during the war .  He follows brother Sir Martin and father Sir Kirby as master of the Company.  He enjoyed his time at school at St. Lawrence College in Ramsgate, on all sports fields, competing in the county schools hockey and swimming teams and in the rugger and tennis teams.  He led the OCC and in contrast, the school choir and had both pop and folk groups; playing clarinet, piano and guitar.  In between he managed to do enough work to pass exams and gain entry to University College London studying architecture at the Bartlett school, where he studied for his B.A. and after 5 years his M.A. in architecture.

He first worked for Sir Basil Spence Bonnington and Collins in their West End office working on buildings at Sussex University and in Sunderland.  He worked with associate Anthony Bryant and they established a practice together in St. Albans in 1972 which continued until Tony's retirement in1990.

David was also a director partner in the successful practice GHM Rock Townend.  He joined the housing develop

ment company Country and Metropolitan as chairman in 1996 and took the company on to OFEX and then on to the main stock exchange list.  The company was acquired by Glade Dale last year and David is now a director of the company which is growing rapidly both organically and by acquisition and has a target of some 4,000 units this year.

David and Mary were married in 1968 and have four boys and daughter Victoria.  Charles, Ben and Tom are Paviors, Vicky a Farrier and James a Musician.

Having lived for 32 years of their married lives in Hertfordshire they moved to the heart of the country, Northamptonshire in 2003, and are now well set

tled in to a very comfortable home.  Charles is a very competent project manager with a recent business management degree from the European college IESE in Barcelona.  His twin daughters, born in Hong Kong and Marcus are now multilingual.  Ben is a remedial sports therapist with a sports science degree and is also a gifted photographer and has a paint-ball business.  Tom runs a pop star activity experience business in Nottingham.  James is a brilliant counter tenor opera singer and had his debut as a principal soloist at Glyndebourne last year.

Vicky manages to combine a career as a very competent event rider (looking for sponsors to ease the strain on her parents!) with her Leiths cookery diploma.  She was selected for the Under 21 British European squad in 2002 having been first reserve in 2001 and having had a very serious accident in 2002 she is now competing again and had a good clear cross country round at Burleigh last year.  David is chairman of St. John for Hertfordshire and the Northamptonshire Community Foundation and trustee of the Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs, International Students House, the National Hockey Foundation, Youth Sports Trust and the Grove House Runcie Hospice.  He enjoys golf, tennis, skiing, has played hockey for Kent, Hertfordshire and Middlesex and the Combined Universities, and has been a keen vintage and classic car rally and race driver with his best result being a 3rd in class at Le Mans Classic in 2002 and a 3rd in class at Le Mans Legends last year, just before a serious crash at Silverstone.  With Mary as navigator they successfully competed in the Round the World Rally in 2000, one of only a handful of cars to have achieved this.

Mary has been the proverbial tower of strength and as well as a mother is a J.P. and is also helping to restore both house and garden, the establishment of the Long-horn herd and the Swaledale flock on the parkland, a cookery demonstration business and  the re-establishment of the Brigstock Horse Trials which will run at the end of May.