My friend David Peace, who has died aged 74 at Dignitas after suffering from motor neurone disease, undertook 20 years of adventures as a teacher of English in far-flung locations, and often dangerous terrain, before returning to the UK in the late 1980s to take on roles in management development and as an executive coach.

He was born to working-class parents, Ivy and Walter Peace; went to Tudor Grange grammar school in Solihull; and read classics at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1969. David joined Voluntary Service Overseas and was sent to Sudan, then VSO’s most extreme hardship posting, where he taught English and travelled widely.

After a PGCE in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University of London, David worked in the early 1970s on an oil concession in the Libyan Sahara. Col Muammar Gaddafi had declared that all Libyans must have English lessons. The company David worked for was soon nationalised, so Gaddafi became his ultimate boss.

In 1976 David moved to Saudi Arabia, where he became principal of the Royal Saudi air force School of English. That involved a decade of management and politics, balancing the complex competing interests of British Aerospace (his employer), the British government (its contracting body) and the client (the Saudi air force).

David returned to the UK in his early 40s, in 1987, to do an MBA at City University (now City, University of London). He became global director of management development for BAE, and subsequently undertook a similar role for Tarmac plc. He then moved into work as an executive coach, counsellor and career-change adviser to senior executives, plus occasional hands-on management roles including running a barristers’ chambers in Middle Temple.

After retirement in 2005 David took on various volunteer roles, including chair of the Cambridge Society of London, secretary of the St Catharine’s College Society, and chair of a Westminster residents’ association. He sang in many choirs, played the piano, was a keen squash player and loved tennis.

In 2019 David was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which proved to be rapidly progressive. There is currently no prevention, treatment or cure and from the outset David was totally open with his many friends. He started a blog, interspersing entertaining stories from his life with direct, no-holds-barred accounts of the progress of his illness. He also supported the establishment by the MND Association of the David Peace Fund, which has raised more than £23,000.

Soon after diagnosis, David joined Dignitas, the Swiss organisation that provides for assisted dying. His support for Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the UK law on assisted dying, resulted in considerable media coverage.