Nourse went to South Africa as a drummer with the West Riding Regiment in 1895 and stayed there, making his first-class cricket debut for Natal two years later.

Batting at No 8 and arriving with the score at 105 for six wickets, Nourse hit an unbeaten 93 and, with a last-wicket partnership of 48 with Percy Sherwell, took South Africa to an unlikely target of 284.

His one Test century came in 1921–22 against Australia at Johannesburg, when he scored 111; he topped the South African batting averages in that series.

Nourse's obituary in Wisden[1] says that he was known for so long as "Dave" that he adopted David as his middle name in preference to William.

It also gives a long list of his careers outside cricket: "a soldier, a railway guard, billiard marker, saloon keeper, commercial traveller, manager of an athletic outfitters and finally coach to Cape Town University".