Armed with his metal detector, a man from Ipswich made it his mission to uncover the secrets of the world around him, bringing stories from the very depths of the earth into the light.
David Fulcher was, in the words of his son, Kevin, “a man who bridged worlds – past and future, precision and imagination, earth and sky”.
“For those of us who knew him, he wasn’t just intelligent — he was inspiring,” said Kevin. “The kind of person who made you want to learn more, understand more, and see the world the way he did.”
David was born in London on May 23, 1950. His early life is something of a mystery. He was adopted, having been left on the steps of a building when he was tiny. In his later years, David told his children he wasn’t interested in tracing his birth parents; he was happy with the family he had.
David’s adoptive parents, Dennis – known as Jack – and Joyce Fulcher, brought him to Ipswich when he was around one year old.
From a young age, David’s father nurtured a fascination with the world around him. Jack was a founding member of the first ever Astronomical Society in town, now known as the Orwell Astronomical Society, Ipswich (OASI). The Fulchers’ first family home in Gloucester Road had an observatory set up from which Jack and David could marvel at the stars. David, too, was deeply interested in space and was riveted by the moon landings which came in 1969.
Jack was also a good friend of the legendary archaeologist, Basil Brown, who discovered the Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo shortly before the Second World War. Mr Brown also had an interest in astronomy, which was how his path crossed with Jack’s.
Even as a child, David dreamed of becoming an archaeologist and begged his father to introduce him to Mr Brown, which he did. David was boggle-eyed to meet his idol, and thrilled when Mr Brown gave him a book which he’d written himself – although David was slightly disappointed to realise later that the book was on astronomy, and not archaeology.
David attended Westbourne School before training as an apprentice watchmaker. Over the course of his life, David wore many hats and tried his hand at a host of different jobs. Following this, he had a stint making engines for Formula One racing cars with Holbay Engineering, and then as a researcher in the laboratories up at BT.
Following this, family legend has it that with just £5 in his pocket, David set up his own auto repair business, which he kept up for many years.
On February 23, 1974, David married Diane Welton. The couple had met at a party and went on to both have rooms in a house share. They later welcomed two children, Kevin and Valerie.
It was around this time that David stumbled upon a hobby which would become a lifelong passion: metal detecting. These were the days before mobile phones, and Diane would joke that she always knew when David had found something interesting, as he would be hours late for dinner.
“He loved unearthing history,” said David’s son, Kevin. “He was a man of rare curiosity and craft skills, someone who didn’t just learn things – he understood them, deeply and completely
“He spent a lifetime learning this stuff.”
Through metal detecting, David got to know the team in the finds department at Suffolk County Council. Through this connection, he was able to work on the Buttermarket dig, when the site of the now-shopping centre was excavated between 1988 and 1990. The site was part of the original Gyppeswyk settlement founded by the Anglo-Saxons in the seventh century.
The most exciting find of David’s life came in 1992, when he and a friend, Peter Bradley, were detecting in Saxmundham and uncovered a hoard of 200 lead groats, rare medieval coins which were minted in Bury St Edmunds around 500 years ago. The coins were bishop boy tokens, each bearing the head of a boy in a bishop’s maître, and had clearly been buried deliberately, around two feet below the surface of the ground.
David split his share of the coins between Mr Bradley and the landowner. Later, David regretfully sold his third, thinking he would never see them again – until Kevin managed to track down a coin which he is sure comes from the hoard David uncovered.
Opening the coin on Christmas Day, David was delighted to be reunited with the coin.
David underwent several health struggles in his later years, having been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 1995. However, he bore these bravely, and he and Diane were doting grandparents to their six grandchildren.
David Fulcher died on May 5, 2026, two weeks shy of his 76th birthday.
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