(18th October 1938 – 2 February 2021)
David was born in 1938, a few months before the outbreak of WW2. His parents decided to stay at their home in Cheam throughout the Blitz. At the end of the war the family took part in the VE day celebrations in the Mall with George VI and Churchill acknowledging the jubilant throng.
David learnt to row at King’s School, Canterbury on the River Stour at Plucks Gutter; in winter one of the bleakest places in the South East. In his last year he rowed in the second eight.
He joined London Rowing Club in 1959 on leaving school. The Grand Eight was already established, so the Club formed an eight which included David, Ant Elworthy, Mike Billinghurst and David Southgate, all ex-King’s men, along with Chris Harris, Nick Waters, David Bowman, Anthony Dorman and Keith Hicks, cox. To everyone’s surprise they won Junior Eights at Putney Regatta in late May and then went on to be the Club’s Thames Cup Eight at Henley. At the same time the King’s boys formed a Wyfold four.
Henley House 1959
Back row - Ant Elworthy, David King, David Bowman, Chris Harris, Paul Littleton, Nick Waters, David Southgate, Bob Beale. Middle row - Robin Coupar, Kees Vlasman, Dennis Ashton, Peter Barnes. Front Row - Ant Dorman, Mike Billinghurst, Robert Walker, Mike Davis.
For David and most of the crew it was their first time competing at Henley. These were the days of the traditional LRC Henley House at Medmenham Vicarage. All well organised in advance, fully catered, dressing for dinner and a barrel of beer in the pantry. The crews spent two weeks training and racing at Henley, so this was their annual holiday.
The Thames Cup crew lost on the Wednesday morning, but later the “King’s” Wyfold four won “easily” and made it through to the semi-final on Saturday morning.
At the end of the season David and Mike raced in a composite eight at the Serpentine, sponsored by the News of the World, and won the Thames Cup event, which was the cause of much jubilation in the Club, being the first Senior Eight’s win of the year.
In 1960 he rowed in the Grand Eight, with Mike Billinghurst. Farn Carpmael was now Club Captain and introduced a rugged training regime, Edward Sturges’gym, long runs and chilly evening outings. The HORR proved the value of the training, as they started 25th and finished 9th. In 1961 they improved on this and came 5th, the best for the Club in some years. They also won in that year the “Golden Oar” long distance race in Antwerp, and the Champion Eights at the Met Regatta.
In 1962 David competed in trials for the coxless fours for the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia. Later, in 1965, he was in the London eight which raced UL in the ARA Trials for the European Championships in Duisburg. “A powerful crew that had not been very long together in this order” said the Rowing Almanack.
In all he represented LRC for nine years running at Henley. This was a major achievement and demonstrated his ability as an oarsman and his great loyalty to the Club. He competed in the Grand six times, the Stewards and Thames Cup once each and the Wyfolds four times.
After Henley there were the provincial regattas, St.Neots and its fantastic quart tankards as well as getting revenge on UL. This was followed by West Country trips to Ross and Hereford Regattas over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
There were also the out of season activities, such as David and others challenge to have a drink in every Young’s pub, the King’s Road Run and many excellent restaurant meals.
David meeting the Club’s Patron, Prince Philip at the Club’s 125 years Celebrations in 1981.
After he retired from active rowing he threw himself into the post of Hon. House Steward for the Club from 1980 to 1987, a total of eight years. He holds the record for the longest serving HHS since the post started in 1872.
Nick Cooper recalls “As I took over as Treasurer the Brennans, who had previously run the bar and catering left”. David stepped in and “assembled a magnificent team of unpaid helpers to boost the bar profits and help paying off the huge overdraft after the renovations. My wife, Lotte, soon joined in and developed a close working relationship with David to quickly build up and run the very successful team of caterers. David got used to parties happening nearly every day and even turned a blind eye when a stripper had been engaged for one. Bookings immediately took off, including from non-members too, and the money came flooding in accordingly. I regularly went to work with a briefcase stuffed with £20 notes and came back with bags of small change for the bar. Happy days but a lot of hard work! We really enjoyed working so closely with David and we missed his warm friendship when we went abroad.” On one occasion, Bernie Regan remembers when he was coaching a crew, David complained that his gym sessions were making the oarsmen too tired to drink much, which was adversely affecting the bar profits.
The social side of the Club boomed with monthly dinners with speakers such as Oliver Philpot on the “Wooden Horse”, an escape from a POW Camp, and Charles Dimont, a descendant of Charles Dickens. The irregulars also had their dinners each week after their Wednesday evening outing. The Boat Race and the HORR became important sources of income. On one occasion the exit to the Club was blocked by a very high tide and it was closing time. It so happened that the local police chief was enjoying a drink at the bar, so David asked whether he should close the bar but the policeman said that would not be appropriate as no one could leave.
Mike Williams remembers David “did most of the work himself despite having a fulltime job, and it was not unusual for him to be changing beer barrels in the small hours of the morning after clearing up following late night functions. Everything he did was done with a quiet sense of humour and great practicality.” He was also instrumental in obtaining Graham Hill’s racing helmet in LRC colours for display in the Club. Graham had rowed in the Club’s Grand Eight in the 1950s.
David being presented with a mounted beer tap and ship’s decanter, by his successor, John Morrell at the Club Dinner in 1987.
David was on the Met Committee when there were just four members. The Regatta was much smaller then and only ran on midweek evenings at Putney. He saw the Regatta through all its changes, moving to Thorpe Park, then Docklands and finally Dorney Lake, and later became a Vice President.
He was a surveyor for the British Rail Property Board for his whole career. He latterly took on the important role of modernising major stations, providing catering outlets and shops at Liverpool Street, Glasgow Central and Waterloo International Stations. On retirement David and Liz were able to travel extensively in the UK on their British Rail privilege tickets and latterly enjoyed holidays in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Both were keen gardeners fortunately with homes in Dorset and France and an allotment in Barnes. David lived a varied life and when he undertook something he could always be relied on and as a result achieved much.
Hugh Dulley
