David Cropley was born in Sydney on 15 June 1926. His father, Oswald Albert Cropley, was a shoemaker. His mother was Hester Sarah Cropley. From the Sydney Church of England Grammar School he went to study medicine at Sydney University, and was for a time anatomical prosector. After qualification, he became junior and then senior RMO at Sydney Hospital, before going to England to study surgery. He worked at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, under Norman Hodgson. He married Judith Anne in 1953, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. On 7 March 2001 his widow notified the College that he had died.