Extraordinary
DAVID was born in Pembroke, South Wales, to a big family – he was the 17th of 18 siblings. His father was in the fire brigade. They were a religious family and David was a choirboy, which gave him a lifelong love of singing. The family was musical — his mother played the piano and his dad the mandolin — and they would make their own entertainment at home. He left school at 15 to become a baker and when he joined the Royal Army Service Corps at 17, he carried on his trade.
Unfortunately, he had to leave the Army three years later because he developed diabetes, an illness that ran in his family. We met in 1958 at a dance at the Corn Exchange in Colchester, Essex, where Ted Heath and his band were playing. As soon as I walked in, I said to my friend: ‘You see that chap sitting over there? I shall marry him.’ She said: ‘Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t even know him.’ Three months later, we married — we just fell in love and that was that. We lived with my father until we got our own place in the town.
HAVE you lost a relative or friend in recent months whose life you’d like to celebrate? Our Friday column tells the stories of ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives. Email your 350-word tribute to: lives@ dailymail.co.uk or write to: Extraordinary Lives, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT. Please include a contact phone number.
Life was difficult for David as he had to inject himself with insulin several times a day. He could no longer be a baker because of the early morning starts, so took on various jobs. Eventually he trained as an electrician and worked at the University of Essex for many years. The doctors at Colchester Hospital warned him he wouldn’t live beyond the age of 50 because of his hard-to-control diabetes, which caused frequent comas. But he proved them wrong. David received Diabetes UK’s Robert Lawrence Medal, awarded to those who have lived with the illness for 60 years. And David not only lived with it, but knew how to really enjoy life. In the 1960s, my brother Douglas taught him to play the guitar and he later taught himself the banjo and keyboard. He performed at parties, fetes and harvest festivals, singing his favourite songs. He was great entertainment value and a wonderful man. Everyone liked him and he is greatly missed, especially by me and our son Christopher. We were married for 62 years and towards the end of his life he told me he would never have made it without me. Having a husband with a serious, lifelong illness was hard on me at times, but, of course, I’d do it all again.
DAVID ANTHONY WEATHERALL, born March 23, 1937; died May 24, 2020, aged 83.