The son of the well-known historian of the early American republic and editor of the Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold Syrett (d. 1984), David Syrett was graduated from Columbia University in 1961. After completing his M.A. at Columbia in 1964, he went on the University of London, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1966 with a thesis on “Shipping and the American War."

New York Military Affairs Symposium, President, 1990–2004

• Shipping and the American war, 1775-83 : a study of British transport organization (1970)
• The siege and capture of Havana, 1762 (1970)
• The Lost war: letters from British officers during the American Revolution edited and annotated by Marion Balderston and David Syrett; introduction by Henry Steele Commager (1975)
• The Royal Navy in American waters 1775-1783 (1989)
• The commissioned sea officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815, edited by David Syrett and R.L. DiNardo (1994)
• The defeat of the German U-boats: the battle of the Atlantic (1994)
• The battle of the Atlantic and signals intelligence : U-boat situations and trends, 1941-1945 (1998)
• The Royal Navy in European waters during the American Revolutionary War (1998)
• "The Raising of American Troops for Service in the West Indies during the War of Austrian Succession, 1740-1", Historical Research Vol. 73, No. 180 (February 2000), pp. 20–32.
• The Battle of the Atlantic and signals intelligence : U-boat tracking papers, 1941-1947 (2002)
• The Rodney papers: selections from the correspondence of Admiral Lord Rodney (2005, 2007)
• Admiral Lord Howe: A Biography (2006)
• Shipping and Military Power in the Seven Years' War: The Sails of Victory (2007)

• Obituary, The Independent (London), 19 January 2005, p. 35
• Obituary, New York Times, 23 October 2004, p. A18