I was very saddened to hear of David's death, having known him on and off since I was a small boy. My first memory of David is him taking my father and myself around Temple Mills yard (where I would later go on to work) when I was about 5 or 6; mostly I remember riding on a noisy shunting loco and bars of chocolate with the British Railways lion and wheel embossed on the squares!
As David and Christine knew my parents quite well, both from university and then from St Mary's, David was around throughout my childhood and teenage years, and we shared a mutual love of railways. When, aged 22, I was struggling to find work it was David who was able to tell me who I needed to write to in order to get a job as a freight guard. That started a highly enjoyable 12 years on the railway for me, where David and I crossed paths professionally and personally. He gave me a number of unique opportunities, such as the chance to travel from Dover to Dunkirk and back on the freight train ferry, as a guest of Railfreight Distribution.
Our paths crossed regularly until I left Shenfield in 2016, and when they did we would always find plenty to talk about, usually train related and often involving David's accounts of his latest project to bring railways to far-flung corners of the globe!
I couldn't leave a tribute to David without mentioning the night he phoned me out of the blue to ask a) what was the largest transport aircraft available for charter and b) did I know any companies that had any? Possibly the oddest phonecall of my life. I'm pleased to say I was able to help in both respects, although ultimately the railway project for which he had them in mind never came to fruition.
I am pleased to have been able to call David a friend and a colleague, and the world is a worse place for his passing.
RIP David, from Chaz Cozens
Chaz
29/01/2025
