David Oliver was born on February 9, 1888, in Long Sutton, South Holland District, Lincolnshire, England. He was the son of Abraham Oliver and Ann Elizabeth (née Intin) Oliver. He was married to Alice Eason in 1911, though she died the following year in 1912. Before entering military service, Oliver was a farmer in Plymouth, Wayne County, Michigan.

Private Oliver served with the 118th Machine Gun Battalion, 62nd Infantry Brigade, 31st Division of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I. The 31st Division, a National Guard unit formed in 1917 at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, arrived in Europe shortly before the end of the war in late 1918. The division was never committed to combat as a full unit and instead provided individual replacements for frontline American forces in France. Oliver died from pneumonia aboard the troopship S.S. Derbyshire (also known as HMT Derbyshire) around the time of its arrival in the United Kingdom in October 1918, while elements of the 31st Division were staging for onward movement to France.

He was initially buried in the American Plot of Everton Cemetery in Liverpool, England. In June 1920, his remains were received by relatives and reinterred at Tydd Saint Mary. The gravestone was erected by his sister, Ada Oliver, while U.S. Army Graves Registration records indicate that Richard Eason, likely a relative by marriage, received his remains for reburial. Private Oliver is also commemorated on a memorial plaque honoring local servicemen who died during World War I at Veterans Memorial Park in his hometown of Plymouth, Michigan.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, en.wikipedia.org, catalog.archives.gov