David Proudfoot (8 December 1892 – 16 January 1958) was a Scottish trade unionist. Born at Methil in Fife, Proudfoot left school at the age of fourteen to undertake an engineering apprenticeship; however, he left after three years to become a coal miner, working at the Klondyke Colliery. He served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers as a machine-gunner during World War I, eventually becoming a non-commissioned officer, but was invalided out with malaria in 1918. Radicalised by the war, he joined the British Socialist Party (BSP), and returned to work in the mines. However, his malaria returned regularly, and so he worked above ground, being elected as checkweighman at the Wellesley Colliery in 1919.