When World War II broke out, David Oguntoye hid in a ship and went to England to volunteer for the Royal Air Force.
He arrived in England in June 1942 and was selected for four years of navigator training in Canada. Unfortunately, when he returned to England in 1946, the war was over, meaning it could not be used on the battlefield.
Instead he was sent to Bicester Oxford as a welfare officer for the Caribbean aviator stationed there. In June of the same year, a beautiful young white woman named Dulcie King, also serving in the Royal Air Force, was transferred to the same station to serve as an instructor.
The two fell in love and started dating, something that shocked the military. Interracial marriages were completely out of favor in England and to make matters worse in the army. His commander calls her out and warns her against dating black men.
Most cops didn't like the fact that Dulce had chosen a black boyfriend. Furthermore, it is Department of Defense policy that race relations should not develop in the military. They even transferred him to another ward to end the relationship, but love was too strong.
At one point, a group of aviators tried to attack David, but Dulcie intervened to protect him. The couple, now Sergeants, continued to be seen together and in October 1946 they attended a dance at RAF Bicester.
For the first time, to apply salt to the wound, they decided to hug in public while the other airmen watched. "He sat in the back of my chair with his arms around her. Obviously, that's something we don't usually do in public, but we wanted to show our relationship boldly," recalls Dulcie.
A month later, the couple decided to leave the Royal Air Force and, despite opposition from their parents, were soon married on November 16, 1946. Both trained as lawyers in London before moving to Nigeria in 1954, where they settled permanently. Considered the chief of his tribe, Sergeant David married five other women, but this in no way affected their relationship. She was content to be the first woman.
They founded a law firm together and in 1960 he renounced his British citizenship. In 1964, David Oguntoye was elected Chief Justice while Dulcie Oguntoye became first judge and then High Court judge in 1976. She was the first woman to serve at Lagos State Bank and the second woman judge in Nigeria after Modupe Omo-Ebo.
When David died in June 1997, she took over as the "kind matriarch" of her late husband's family until her death in 2018.