The East Window of St David’s was formally unveiled during Morning Service on Sunday 1 May 1904.  It was given to the church by Richard Bowerman and Elizabeth Eames in memory of their sister Sarah Thornton West of Streatham Hall, who had died in December 1902.

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Mrs Thornton West had paid for the demolition of the old church, and she and her son Richard had contributed some £12,000 (around 60% of the total) towards the cost of the new building.  Richard is commemorated by the window in the south transept and it seems entirely fitting that the great east window should have been dedicated to Sarah.

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As is the case with most of the windows in the church, Charles Eamer Kempe was the designer, and the windows were made in his London workshops.  His famous trademark, the wheatsheaf, can be found low down in the border of the window on the left side.

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​At the top of the central window, we see the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove, flanked by adoring angels on either side. The Spirit descends first on three of the early apostles, Peter, Paul and Andrew.  Each has his traditional attribute, so Peter holds the keys of heaven and a book with the words of Jesus in Latin “Ego tibi dabo claves” – “I will give you the keys” (Matthew16:18). Paul and Andrew have the instruments of their martyrdom: respectively a sword and the cross saltire. And Paul holds the text “Caritas Christi urget nos” – “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

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The word ‘apostle’ is from the Greek apostolos meaning envoy or messenger, and below these three first apostles are three later emissaries: St Augustine of Canterbury, St David and St Boniface – the apostle to the English, and the patron saints of Wales and Germany, with David being also our titular saint and Boniface having the additional local attraction of being a man from Crediton.

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​The left window represents the flow of Christian faith from Ireland to the shores of Scotland, and thence to the North of England.  So the blue robed figure of the Irish St Columba carries his abbey of Iona in his left hand.  Below him is St Aidan, the apostle of Northumbria, who came from Iona to establish the priory of Lindisfarne, and appointed St Hilda, who stands to his left, as abbess of Hartlepool.  She also holds an ecclesiastical building, presumably the abbey of Whitby, which she founded in the year 657AD.  Thus Christianity was restored to Anglo-Saxon England.

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The first figure in the right window brings us closer to the west country.  It is St Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury and bishop of Sherborne.  Below him is St Birinus, first bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames and apostle to the West Saxons, who is credited with the conversion of the people of Wessex and the baptism of Cynegils their king around 634AD.

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​The last figure, and perhaps a surprising inclusion in this galaxy of saints, is that of Queen Victoria in prayer.  Above her is the legend “In D[omi]no Confido” - “In the Lord I Trust” – and the message must be that here is the dynastic and spiritual heir to Cynegils, and one of the latest and greatest of those whose lives have been directed by the Holy Spirit of God.