David was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, to an army officer, Basil Hayles, who was a descendant of Robert Walpole, British prime minister from 1721 to 1742, and Jean (nee Prior), sister of the Conservative politician Jim Prior.
A heart attack allied to serious brain damage forced him to step down from running Hayles & Howe in 1999, but as soon as he was able he resumed his eclectic lifestyle, living in Oxford in New York state with his second wife, Angelique Bakaylar, whom he married in 2004.
My friend David Hayles, who has died aged 78, was a decorative plasterer whose creations graced interiors across the globe, from Buckingham Palace to Disney World.
After trying his hand at various trades and ventures, including snake-catching and plumbing, in 1978 he moved into decorative plastering and founded Hayles & Howe, a Bristol-based company.
On returning to Bristol he stood in the 1971 city council elections as the first and only candidate for the Bristol Dwarf party on a pro-environment, pro-cycling and anti-car manifesto, also arguing for the legalisation of cannabis.
