To sum up his playing career and life in the short space allotted is not easy. He played 11 seasons for the club (captaining the club in the 1959-60 one), 23 times for England and two Tests, one each against Australia and New Zealand, for the 1959 British Lions. He also appeared in four Varsity matches, for the Army and for the Barbarians against the 1958 Wallabies and on their ground breaking tours to Canada and South Africa. He will be best remembered as part of a record setting partnership with John Currie in the second row for England of 22 consecutive appearances from 1956 to 1961. Both were part England's Grand Slam team of 1957, the first since 1928. This pairing was repeated on numerous occasions for the Quins.

To many he was the epitome of an English gentleman. With mischievous humour, he played up to this image on a number of occasions. He is forever remembered in Lions folklore as the man who stepped off the aeroplane in Darwin's brutal heat at the start of the 1959 tour, resplendent in shirt and tie, jacket, raincoat and bowler hat, carrying a rolled up City of London type umbrella. This was the splendid, indefatigable Englishman stepping out into the Colonies. Then, when he was kicked by the New Zealander, Albie Pryor, some distance from the action and the ball, he jumped to his feet, six feet five inches of quivering English rectitude and, to the astonishment of all, held out his hand to Pryor to gingerly take it. After the match, his colleague Bill Mulcahy demanded, "Why the devil didn't you belt him?" for the aristocratic Marques to reply, "You wouldn't understand, Bill. I wanted to make him feel a cad."
And Marques' family history is as colourful a tale. "I had an Australian father and Welsh mother. My father came to England originally via Gallipoli." After schooling at Tonbridge, where David was part of the unbeaten 1949 XV along with a certain Colin Cowdrey who did rather well on another sporting field, national service and Cambridge, he joined the family firm in Ware. In 1964, he was a member of the crew of Sovereign, the America Cup challenger, providing the powerhouse along with fellow Quin and Tonbridgian, Dick Page.
Off the field, he was a JP, a governor of Haileybury College and took an active interest in the Riding for Disabled charity. The latter helped Jason, one of his sons who is disabled, enjoy life.
Our thoughts are with Jan, his wife, and his three sons at this time.