William David McIntyre OBE: 4 September 1932-11 September 2022.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: OBITUARY

Members of the NZIIA and the historical profession were saddened by the sudden passing in Hutt Hospital on 11 September of one of New Zealand's most influential and productive historians, David McIntyre, shortly after his 90th birthday. He was a victim of COVID, having tested positive on 19 August.

David's roots lay in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, where his father was a Congregationist minister. At the age of eight, while the Battle of Britain raged, he went as a boarder to Caterham School in Surrey, and remained there for ten years. For half that time, his father was a prisoner of war in Germany, having been captured while serving with the British Expeditionary Force in France.

When he turned eighteen in 1950, David himself became liable for military service. During the next two years, he served in the Royal Corps of Signals and was commissioned as a second lieutenant; he remained a part-time officer in the Territorial Army until 1962. Taking advantage of a scholarship for studious officers, David went to Peterhouse, Cambridge University, where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in 1955. A Fulbright scholarship then allowed him to complete an MA at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1956. During the next three years, enrolled in University College London's School of Oriental and African Studies, he prepared his PhD thesis on 'British policy in west Africa, the Malay peninsula and the south Pacific during the secretaryships of Lord Kimberley and Lord Carnarvon 1870-1876', graduating in 1959.

While at the University of Washington David met Marion Hillyard, a graduate of Brigham Young University in Utah. They were married in 1957, and would have four sons and a daughter. Marion was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church), and David also joined the church. After this marriage was dissolved during the 1980s, he married Marcia King in 1993.

During his American stint, David gained some teaching experience as a teaching fellow at the University of Washington in 1955-56, and later lectured at the University of Maryland. From 1959 to 1965 he lectured at the University of Nottingham on Commonwealth and American history. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of British Columbia.

David came to New Zealand in 1966 to take up a position at the University of Canterbury, and was soon appointed professor of history at the young age of 34. As a collegial head of department for a substantial period, he relished...