[3] David was educated at Exeter School and in 1885 won a classical scholarship to Queen's College, Oxford,[4] He gained a first-class degree in literae humaniores in 1889.

[6] In 1905 David accepted the headmastership of Clifton College, in succession to Michael George Glazebrook, under whom the school had suffered a severe decline in numbers.

[8] David's biographer Matthew Grimley writes, "A tall and imposing presence, he was a great success with masters, boys, and the school's trustees.

He held that very few boys were stupid, and that there should be "a larger measure of controlled freedom in work and a wider choice of occupations should be contrived for the majority".

[9] Some of the older members of his staff considered that David's methods would undermine discipline and damage the school's reputation.

He was consecrated bishop in Westminster Abbey by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 25 July 1921,[11] and was enthroned in St Edmundsbury Cathedral on 29 September the same year.

[6] The Manchester Guardian said of him, "deep spirituality, allied with no little indifference to ecclesiastical forms, and even to dogmatic affirmations, may be said to be Dr David's chief characteristic.

The Manchester Guardian said of him, "In Dr. Chavasse Liverpool has enjoyed a true Chief Pastor, a Father-in-God, who, if he was not always right (no man is) was always honoured and beloved.

"[6] A historian of Liverpool Cathedral, Peter Kennerley, describes David as "imaginative, enthusiastic, an innovator and educator strong on organisation and administrative structures, liberal and yet autocratic in his ways.

[17] The section was closed with a temporary wall, and on 19 July 1924, the 20th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone, the cathedral was consecrated in the presence of George V and Queen Mary, and bishops and archbishops from round the globe.

David publicly supported Dwelly during the ensuing furore, but was obliged to endure the humiliation of being formally reproved by William Temple, Archbishop of York (his former pupil at Rugby), in provincial synod in 1934.