I first met David when being interviewed for a position in his department in early 1973 when coming to the end of my GEC apprenticeship, I must have impressed him because within a week I was working for him, learning all about harmonics and how to get rid of them, a task that I was still doing 40 years later! He was a strong but nonetheless kind taskmaster and I soon learnt that there was only one way to do a job and that was properly, a fact that has stayed with me throughout the rest of my career and life. Yes, we all suffered from the occasional dose of a QBL (quivering bottom lip) for our misdemeanours, or seeing how far his red pen could reach to the pages beneath when we had made the odd typo or error. He was very much the master of correct report and letter writing (aka the ‘David Young School of English’) for which I am truly grateful. His knowledge of engineering was infinite and solid, if he didn’t know the answer then I doubt that anybody else did. I left GEC some 13 years later to join the CEGB and thence NGC (his description at the time was that I was turning from ‘poacher’ to ‘gamekeeper’) and we met again many times professionally when I was the other side of the fence, but always with good humour. He very much influenced my life,  he will be sorely missed.