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It was a truly moving experience to accompany Dave on his last journey on 4 June. With the lockdown in full force well-wishers gathered on the streets of Olney (where he lived) and in the surrounding villages, waving football scarves and clapping the cortège. And how they gathered. Over the years he had educated many of them - or their children - as deputy head at the school in Yardley Hastings.
The son of Michael Popplewell (Field’s 1944 - 1949), Dave studied classics at Warwick after leaving Lancing. He had all-round talents and could have done many things in life, but the natural teacher in him, by intellect and temperament, soon surfaced and he found his métier. The affection shown on the assembled faces lining the streets that June day spoke to a kind and gentle educator in the broadest sense, of whom Lancing can be so very proud.
David’s outside passion was sport in many forms. An able racketsman in both badminton and tennis, and avid footballer of the Five-a-side variety throughout his life, his school sporting achievements were capped when he became the only centurion of the ’81 cricket season with a match winning ton against Epsom.
The school calendar enabled him to travel frequently and his last months’-long adventure in 2018 took him to the Antipodes and to Asia, to incorporate time with his sponsored child in Cambodia. Soon after his return he was gripped by a cancer which he battled with determination and great equanimity.
David will be missed most acutely by his wife Ali, children Frances and Matt and his sisters and parents. Many OL peers will remember him with affection and for those inclined, he’d have been delighted for any contribution to the charity ‘Brainstorm’ to help ease the path for those forced to follow in his footsteps.
Philip Nash (Gibbs’ 1976 – 1981)