David Robert Bird was born on 10 August 1947, in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. His father, Bernard John Bird, known as 'Jack', was a clerk in local government and a keen amateur musician. He had one younger sister who died at the age of 37 from ovarian cancer. His mother Mary, née Bull, developed multiple sclerosis at a young age. David was educated at the local grammar school and went on to King's College, Cambridge, where he rowed for his college, and financed himself through university by working in a butcher's shop and busking on the streets. He was a senior registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and Carey Coombs research fellow in the vascular laboratory at Bristol Royal Infirmary. He was later appointed consultant general and vascular surgeon at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest. He was married to Sarah while an undergraduate, but they later divorced. He had two daughters from his first marriage, Hannah and Amanda. In 1979 he married Ann Christina Bushell. She was a consultant microbiologist in the same hospital. They bought a smallholding where they cared for farm animals. David was an accomplished musician (piano, harpsichord and tympani). They were both founder members and performers in the Preseli orchestra. Increasingly frustrated by being unable to keep up their customary high standards in a deteriorating NHS, they both developed stress-related illnesses. David was found to have Ewing's sarcoma and, despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he died on 3 February 2002. Ann refused to be separated from him by death and died by her own hand three months later.