This site is a tribute to David (Skip), who was born in Wolverhampton on March 10, 1947. 

David grew up with his sister Heather in a village in the West Midlands not unlike Overton. There were family secrets from times during World War II that David was not able to unravel till in mid life, when he was able to trace and be reunited with his two older brothers, Ian and Robin and their families, a great joy to him. 

While at school he went on an activity week - sailing on the Menai Straits. But as there was no wind the boys were taken to the Llanberis Pass  and there began David's love of rock climbing, and of the mountains. For the next 20 years he would climb in Snowdonia, Scotland and the Alps, then slowing down to hill walking.

As David completed studying for a degree in Business Studies at Wolverhampton University, he was introduced to Jill - 50 years ago, who was teaching at his old primary school. It was an introduction organised by their two mothers who hatched a plan at their WI committee meeting, to introduce them!
David worked in sales for GKN Sankey in Telford but after James was born the family moved to Overton, where Chris was born, and David had moved to work at Rubery Owen in Wrexham. For the next 20 years he was Sales & Marketing director in the office equipment industry traveling all over the world (including on Concord), and finally having his own safe company based on Penley Industrial estate. 
After selling the company and in his mid 50s, he joined Jill who worked for the National Trust, becoming House Manager at Chirk Castle, caring for its historic contents - and living in the castle - a job he loved.
On retirement David became a volunteer at Erddig on the Collection Management System, working on recording all the artifacts on to a website to make them accessible for the public, plus giving many talks to history groups.

After suffering from cancer in the 1970s and having to travel to Manchester for treatment as there were no facilities or a scanner in Wrexham, David gave several years to fundraising for the Frank Wingett Cancer Fund, organising the Overton Medieval May Day Fayre in 1981 and restarting the Overton August Bank Holiday Carnivals also in 1980s. From 1990 David was vice chairman of the Overton 700th Charter Anniversary committee, and through his connection through Scouting with Sir Willam Gladstone, Lord Lieutenant, he managed to arrange a royal visitor in 1992 for Overton's pageant and flower festival - that was Queen Elizabeth II! 

David was involved with Scouting in Overton for 39 years, as Group Chairman, Group Scout Leader, Treasurer and Explorer Scout Leader, helped many young people achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and was involved in fundraising to send many local kids to Scout Jamborees all over the world, including his own sons to South Korea and the Netherlands, meeting young people from other countries and creating experiences and opportunities which would change their lives. He served on the Wrexham Appointments committee and volunteered on the maintenance of the district scout camp at Cox Wood. He was awarded the Scouting Silver Acorn and bar, was a guest at the Westminster Abbey service for Scouting in 2015 and should have been a guest at the St Georges Day Parade at Windsor Castle in 2020, unfortunately cancelled through the pandemic.

David served on Overton Community Council from 1998 to 2014 with 16 years of service to the community as a councillor. During that time he served 2 terms as Chairman and 1 as Vice Chairman. He was part of the Overton Oracle editorial team for 22 years from its inception in 1999, campaigned with fellow councillors for traffic calming, extending the 30mph in the village, for taking on the Millennium Meadow as a public space for everyone, and for maintenance of footpaths, representing Overton on the Wrexham Rural Community Safety group.

David was a committee member of the Friends of St Marys Church Overton and was Chairman of Overton branch of the Royal British Legion since 2010. He took great pride in training to carry the Overton standard, and taking it with a thousand others, to be part of the GP90, the Great Pilgrimage to the Menin Gate at Ypres in 2018. 
A Liverpool and Wales Rugby supporter, an authority on the works of J R R Tolkein, a Trekkie and Star Wars enthusiast, a lover of mountains, castles and medieval history, the best husband and dad, always young at heart, and taking great pride and joy in being a granddad to his 4 grandsons.
He lived by what he taught his Scouts - do your best.

He is much loved and will always be remembered.