David Iliffe was born in 1931, in Toronto, Canada, the son of John Henry Iliffe, the first Curator of the Palestine Archaeology Museum, Jerusalem (1931-1948) and latterly the Director of Liverpool Museums (1948-1959). David appears to have spent his early years in Jerusalem and is recorded travelling in the 1930s, with his mother, between Palestine, the UK and Canada. He attended Cambridge University gaining an undergraduate degree c1952 and enrolling the same year at the Architectural Association, London, where he joined the Third Year. As part of his final year’s studies, in 1954-55, Iliffe was part of the first cohort of the newly formed AA Department of Tropical Architecture. Upon graduation, he joined the London practice of Claude Phillimore and Aubrey Jenkins but little is known to us of his subsequent career. 

Sources:

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1924-1963, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box 27, AA Archives
• RIBA Directory of Practices, 1969 The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 425
• The National Archives, London, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1126; Item: 85
• The National Archives, London, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1120; Item: 15
• Wharton, J.A. Architectural Agents: The Delusional, Abusive, Addictive Lives of Buildings, University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
• Cline, E. Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon, Princeton University Press, 2020.