David Collins was born in London on 9th August 1899. His parents were Edwin Hyman Simeon Collins, an author and schoolmaster and his wife Ada Eleanor Collins, nee Stanford, a musician and music teacher. David's siblings were Ivan J. (b. 1894), Edward Guthrie (b.1897), Josef S. (b. 1898), Herman L. (b. 1903), Dorothy R. (b. 1904), Robert B. (b. 1907) and Kathleen M. (b. 1908). In 1901 the family lived in Ramsgate in Kent and in 1911 they lived in Middlewich in Cheshire. At the time of David's death, they lived in Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey.
When war broke out, David initially joined the 1st London Regiment, enlisting in Kingston, Surrey. He transferred to the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards as a Guardsman and died of wounds sustained in France on 11th October 1918. David Geoffrey Collins was buried in Delsaux Farm Cemetery, 62124 Beugny, Pas de Calais, France.
Sources: Find my Past and Free BMD
If anyone has a photograph or any of Davis's poems please get in touch. Many thanks to Stanley Kaye for finding another forgotten poet of The First World War. I have added David's name to the list of Cemeteries where poets are buried.
