David qualified from Glasgow Vet School in 1988 and joined Chapelfield Veterinary Partnership Ltd in Norfolk, working out of their Long Stratton branch. His starting role was as a cattle vet, but quickly he became involved in all other aspects of the practice – equine, pigs and small animals. The latter only involved consulting and operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because the cats and dogs in South Norfolk only got sick on those days. After two years working from a portacabin, David helped the branch move into a small bricks and mortar building. Ten years later, in 2000, saw him lead the project to build the current Long Stratton clinic – you can fit the portacabin in the staff room. He also assisted with the new Wymondham clinic build and helped with the project management of CVP’s Brooke equine clinic in 2012. When not building clinics, David has helped to build up the farm animal side of the business and provided support to the equine team of vets primarily with reproduction work; racecourse attendance and riding school inspections for five councils. He was the senior veterinary surgeon for the Royal Norfolk Show in their team of six vets until recently and also worked in the Suffolk Show vet team. He is a director of Vetscore who conducted carcase scoring for the British Pig Health Scheme; is the Team Leader for the practice’s ET laboratory and was for several years involved in the business management of CVP. He retired as a clinical director in early October of 2018, but is delighted to have been taken on in a part-time role as a farm animal clinical coach and mentor to Chapelfield’s three, superb new IVC Evidensia mixed academy vets.
David has a wife, Julie who works in the Brooke equine clinic and two grown-up daughters who have just started to help Julie look after him. Spare time used to be spent running around rugby and cricket pitches before the body started to pack up; since when more relaxed pastimes such as carp fishing, walking his two dogs with Julie and watching Norwich City have come to the fore.