Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal 18, 2009

David Shavreen, who had been a member of this Society for many years, died in June 2008, at the age of 87 years. He had lived in Brentford for the last twenty or so years of his life, and was deeply interested in the history of the area. Not content with reading the published books on Brentford he went back to the original sources and studied the New Brentford Vestry minutes, the manorial records, the Clitherow papers at the London Metropolitan Archives and other original documents. He had an eye for the interesting details that can bring the past to life and wrote in all eight articles for the Society’s journal (from 1999 up to the last one published in Journal 18, 2009) based on the fruits of his research.

However the history of Brentford was only one of his interests. Born in Brighton in 1921, he attended the Jewish Grammar School when his family moved to Golders Green and then won a place at London University. After a spell in the Royal Artillery during the war he trained as a teacher, and found his metier, teaching for the next 40 years in Chiswick, Brentford, Tottenham and finally Singapore. Even after retirement he was still involved with education, running U3A courses, giving talks and helping primary school children with reading. He had a fine singing voice and was at one time a member of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Chorus; given his knowledge and love of music he joined the committee of the Blenheim Music Circle in 1989 and wrote the reviews of their concerts. He also wrote poems and plays, but his interests were not all cerebral, he was a keen walker and could outpace people of half his age.

Donations in David’s memory have funded the restoration of books in the Layton Collection, (now at Feltham Library although originally in Brentford) through the Layton Trust’s Sponsor a Book scheme.