David was born on the island of Barbados in the West Indies. On his father's side, the family came from Puerto Rico and Denmark, in the middle of the nineteenth century, to settle eventually on the island of Barbados, where they opened a ship chandlery business, Hanschell & Co. On his mother's side, his grandparents had emigrated from the British Isles to western Canada, some of whom had settled in the town of Rothesay in New Brunswick. When he was seven, in 1950, his family moved to Trinidad where he completed his primary education and he attended boarding school in Barbados in 1955.He lived, studied and worked all over Canada for many years. In 1973, finding himself in Scotland (on the way to Wales), decided he had a certain affinity for the place and decided stay, later studying education at Moray House College in Edinburgh. He began his Scottish teaching career in the East End of Glasgow, eventually marrying and coming to teach on the Island of Bute some thirty years ago at North Bute Primary School, Port Bannatyne, Isle of Bute.Prior to Hurricane Ivan's devastation of Grenada in 2004, he had had no direct contact with Grenada. However, as a child in Barbados he was aware of it as being an island of immense variety and appeal.