HISTORICAL DIVING SOCIETY

Minutes of the 17th Annual General Meeting of the Society, held at the Falmouth Hotel,
Falmouth on Sunday 21st October 2007.

The meeting commenced at 1015am.

Present:
Sir John Rawlins, President Dr. John Bevan, Chairman Reg Vallintine, Vice-Chairman
Peter Wingett, Treasurer John Smillie, Working Equipment Group Officer (North)
Una Smillie, Membership Secretary Gary Wallace-Potter, Working Equipment Officer (South)
Mike Fardell, Secretary Peter Dick, HDT Editor Kim Langridge, Member without Portfolio
Adrian Barak Films Officer Diana Dykes Webmaster John Hamilton Archivist and 20
members of the Society.

1. Apologies for Absence

Peter Jackson

2. Approval of the Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting, held on the
22nd October 2006, at the Museum in Docklands, London
John Hamilton’s apology for absence had not been recorded.

3. Actions Arising
There were no matters arising.

4. Dissolution of non-elected sub-committees and of co-opted posts, in accordance with the

Constitution, rule 4c.

5. Reports of the Society’s Officers

i. Chairman
Dr. John Bevan reported that the Committee had met 5 times at 5 exotic locations: St.
Albans, East Sheen, Stoney Cove, Gosport and Osterley. Overseas liaison had been good,
with the Society entertaining visitors from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Italy, and visiting
Kalymnos and Giglio. Discussions were taking place with Dr. Pavel Borovikov from Russia
on his new book. There were now 14 overseas Historical Diving Societies. Some of the year’s
successes and notable events were: The award of honorary life membership to Sir John
Rawlins; the preservation of the film collection and purchase of projection equipment by
means of the Heritage Lottery Fund grant obtained for the Society by Adrian Barak and
Bill Braithwaite; The continuing development of the website; publication of 3 excellent
issues of Historical Diving Times by Peter Dick and successful Working Equipment Group
(WEG) events all over the country, including at the new Underwater Stage at Pinewood
Studios, which was marred only by criticism that the water was too clear and warm and the
mermaid was already married!
He further noted that Bob Campbell was giving up stewardship of the HDS demand valve
collection and thanked Peter Jackson for taking over this important role. Richard Walsby
had taken on the role of Deputy Editor of the Journal. He expressed his gratitude to the
sponsors of the conference, Falmouth Divers and Macsalvors. Society funds were just about
OK but more Life and Corporate Members were needed. The Society’s long term survival
could be assured with some legacy commitments, He noted that membership remained steady
at about 350. Finally, he reminded the meeting that the Society was continually looking for
more assistance from members, the most important and urgent current requirement being for
an Exhibitions Officer.
ii) Vice-Chairman
Reg Vallintine:
Book Meets
The ‘bibliophile section’, after a mixed year in 2006, was well attended for the 3 meetings
that were arranged this year. In May, we visited Bob Campbell, guru of the DVs, at his
hideout on Swanage Pier. A report has already appeared in the magazine. In July we had an
interesting return visit to Tony Marshall’s home near Sevenoaks. The amount of information
provided by Tony and also those present regarding the last years of Siebe Gorman and Heinke
was astonishing. I hope that at least some of it will be recorded in a forthcoming report to
HDT. Finally, we enjoyed seeing the latest acquisitions of Martin Woodward in his splendid
home overlooking the Channel. A report is also due to be published in HDT.
Visits
The Italian HDS visited us in April, and an extensive programme was organised for them by
Gary Wallace-Potter. A group led by John Smillie attended the annual Kalymnos diving
festival and helped with the helmet diving demonstration. A visit was organised to the new
location of Martin Woodward’s Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum on the Isle of
Wight. His collection of artifacts goes form strength to strength.
Publications
The second issue of our Journal, dealing with the history of diving bells, has appeared since
my last report. There is a delay in the preparation of the next as Nigel Phillips is unable to
continue as Editor and a replacement for him is being sought. Bill Braithwaite’s account of
the ‘wood books’ of the Royal George and Mary Rose has, of course, been published, and
received the Art Bachrach prize this year. We are still hoping to publish Daniel David’s work
on early autonomous diving as our next monograph. It has been translated, but is being held
up by lack of funds. Information on any sources of funding for this would be very much
appreciated.
Forward Planning
The Society continues to be recognized as a Charitable Trust with the committee members as
its official trustees. An enormous amount of voluntary work is put in by all of them. The
biggest potential problem seems to be the replacement of officers and those who have given
their efforts over the years to make our various activities successful. Some of us have been in
office for well over 10 years and this situation cannot continue indefinitely. We are now
urgently looking for an Exhibitions Officer and an Editor for the Journal. Assistants for Gary
Wallace-Potter (Working Equipment Officer – South) and others, would also be appreciated.
All societies must be renewed and I urge you to help by volunteering to take on one of these
very necessary jobs.
Next Conference
We shall hold our conference and dinner at Liverpool again, on the 25th October 2008. They
have been appointed ‘European City of Culture’ in 2008 so the city fathers are stretched with
a number of events, so that it is not yet certain whether we will enjoy another of their splendid
receptions. However, Liverpool was a popular venue, so we have high hopes that it will be
another success.

iii) Treasurer
Peter Wingett presented the draft Report and Financial Statement for the year ending 31st
March 2007, noting that they showed a deficit of c£3,500. He was not considering raising the
subscription levels this year, but was looking to do so in 2008.
Dr. Lesley Runnalls: Any increase in subscription needed to be handled carefully.
PW: Current subscription income barely covered basic expenditure.
John Hamilton: Should we not consider raising subscriptions now?
PW: Still had to assess the income realizable from Gift Aid and other sources before he could
make a sensible decision. Membership seemed to have reached a ‘plateau’.
He ended his report by thanking Una Smillie for her support as Membership Secretary.
iv) Newsletter Editor
Peter Dick thanked members for their response to his request for material. The magazine had
now become very international, with the last issue containing input from 6 countries. Liaison
with other societies was excellent. He had been able to assist HDS SEAP in setting up their
magazine. As ever, more input was always wanted, and he suggested some new areas, such as
anecdotes, divers’ food.
Mike Fardell proposed a vote of thanks to the Editor, recognising his success in producing
such a high quality magazine.

v) Working Equipment Group Officers

South
Gary Wallace-Potter
Working Equipment Group (South) has had a very busy 2007; a total of 10 Events, 8 diving
and 2 static displays at a variety of locations.

London Aquarium – (March 31st – April 1st) was the first WEG (S) event of the year.

HDS Italia WEG Exchange - (April 26th- 30th) this was the reciprocal visit to Ravenna, in
2006.
Based in Portsmouth, we packed in: Visits to the Historic Dockyard – HMS Victory, HMS
Warrior & the Mary Rose, and a private viewing of the Mary Rose Collection. (2 Days).
Diving at Horsea Lake (2 Days) & a trip and tour around Winchester Cathedral.
Isle of Wight ‘Old Gaffer’s ‘ Event (Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd June) a new event for the
HDS Static Display
Seawork 2007, Southampton – (June 12th – 14th) this is fast becoming a major maritime
show, and the WEG were asked if we would exhibit and dive at this event. We had a stand
manned for the first two days by David Tidmarsh and Peter Wingett, and the WEG team then
descended on the Thursday to dive through-out the day in the excellent Searchwise Diving
Tank.
Underwater Stage, Pinewood Studios – (July 7th) The 75th Anniversary of Film Making at
Pinewood. We had a Static Equipment Display and Film Memorabilia Display and the diving
in the UW Stage Tank. Filmed by Mike Vallentine and crew.
London Aquarium – (July 14th – 15th)

Whitstable Harbour Day – (July 28th) Second year with the RE Diving Tank. The tank
was hugely popular at this annual event.

English Heritage ‘ Festival of History’ – (August 11th-12th) a big static display.

National Waterways Museum, Gloucester Docks – (August 18th – 19th) despite the
terrible flooding in the area, the museum wanted to go ahead with the planned event.
Unfortunately despite the advertising this event was very quiet.
London Aquarium – (September 22nd – 23rd)

Events to follow this year:

London Aquarium – (November 24th – 25th)

WEG Events for 2008:

Winchester Cathedral – celebrating the work of William Walker – TBA

As always I would like to thank all the WEG members that have participated in any way and
helped by making the years events possible, especially those who most generously support the
WEG with the use of their diving equipment.
Kim Langridge: Suggested that some venues might be handled by members living locally.
As examples, he suggested the Gaffers Rally (Isle of Wight) and Seawork (Southampton).

North:
John Smillie reported that the season had started early this year with our first venue being at
the Deep Sea World in North Queensferry Aquarium, Scotland. The staff there tried to sell
the weekend as a Standard Equipment dive with the sharks and charge £150 per dive, but it
was not successful, with no individual takers, though 3 dive clubs applied but insisted on all
their interested people being dived or none at all. DSW decided that 12/15 divers would be
too much, so we dived ourselves a usual. A 2-day event, but we only really dived on the
Saturday.
A week later on Sunday 25th March saw us at Park Hall in Lancashire for the North West Area
BSAC Conference. Una and I and Howard & Diana [Dykes] had a small display stand and
Howard and I dressed a member on the stage in a ¾ hour slot.
Next on June 9th we were at Stoney Cove again for our annual rally, and another good turn
out, with 21 members from all areas of the UK, and 16 dives during the day. We had 3
pumps, 2 Siebe and a Heinke and we dived Siebe and Heinke helmets.
In July, on 28/29th came Holyhead another regular event, very enjoyable but we were a bit
short on bodies. We had a good static display and also a dive team. We did 3 dives on
Saturday (late start) and 4 on Sunday. The trouble was the weather was so cold, especially at
the end of McKenxie Pier, and so we didn’t have any spectators.
Then in August, the 18th to be precise, we went of to Kalymnos in Greece for the Dive
Festival. Eight of us went, had excellent treatment from Nicholas at the Alies Hotel and
Katerina (Island Tourism) and we did feel much appreciated. The Kalymnians (Dimitri in
particular), did take on our criticisms from previous years and the dive they did was much
safer. The HDS got an invitation to the Awards Presentation and I was asked to present one of
the prizes. Avery enjoyable time was had by all on Kalymnos
Thanks to everyone who helped to make this year another successful one for the HDS in the
North.
John Bevan: Noted that it was thanks to John Smillie that the Kalmynians were able to
relearn their hard hat diving skills.
Howard Dykes: Suggested a tank at Holyhead so that the diving would be closer to the
spectators.
JS: The organisers had looked at the possibility this year but logistics had prevented it.
Peter Wingett: More volunteers were needed to support the WEGs.
Howard Dykes: Suggested advertising for members in Diver magazine, etc.
Gary Wallace-Potter: Feedback from surveys indicates that vintage SCUBA has a big
following. Perhaps an event should be built around ‘Classic SCUBA’.
Peter Wingett: Had talked to Bob Campbell on this subject. The problem would be a supply
of working valves. He thought we should ask Bob Campbell to look into the matter in more
detail.
Reg Vallintine: There are a huge number of SCUBA divers who, for example, have never
dived a twin hose.
Cheryl Wingett: Safety would be a factor.
Gary Wallace-Potter: Safety divers would be needed in the water.
Howard Dykes: Might it be possible to arrange a pool session, perhaps for a club on their
training night?

vi) Exhibitions Officer

In the absence of an elected Exhibitions Officer, Mike Fardell submitted a report to the
meeting.
The Society had exhibited at the London and Birmingham Dive Shows this year, courtesy of
Diver Group, who had supplied large stands and furniture without charge, as well as paying
the expenses for members who attended. The theme had been ‘diving cartoons’ and examples
from early Punch magazines, Rico (from Diver magazine) and Jay (from Underwater
Contractor magazine) had been exhibited, with explanatory notes where applicable. In
addition, Diver Group had asked that the Birmingham stand also reflect the 25th anniversary
of the raising of the Mary Rose, so a display on the history, search for and raising of the
Tudor warship was put on, with assistance from the Mary Rose Trust and Royal Naval
Museum, who lent display material, films and CDs of oral reminiscences of divers who had
taken part
Despite advertising, there had been no volunteers to take on this vital post. However, John
and Una Smillie had volunteered to provide a display based around the history of sponge
diving for the 2008 shows.

vii) Membership Secretary

Una Smillie reported that the membership has been quite steady over the past year
considering we had an increase in fee’s. The Membership stands at:
Corporate 18 inc. 1 Hon. Corporate
Individual (UK) 208
Family 25
Overseas 71
Student 2
Life 7

Total Membership 331

Magazine only 30
Therefore total members on database = 361

We have had 23 new members this year, which is a drop on last year of 41%. We still need
assistance in trying to get new members to join us.
Melo Wallace-Potter: Suggested advertising a year’s subscription as a Xmas present
A ‘Join the Society and dive today’ pack for WEG events was suggested. Also, that Dive and
Diver be approached for the donation of a small advertising slot in one of their end-of-year
issues, which could be used to advertise membership as a present.

Merchandise:
In the North we had just 5 events, one was a first, the BSAC N/West Area Conference, we
only took £24, but we did get a new member. We hope to be asked back in future and
possibly progress the figures. The total sales for the North area were £1252.40.
The south this year only had 3 events where they had stock available for sale giving a figure
of £430.40
The Online Shop sales for this year was £625.65
The total sale for this year £2,308.45

viii. Member Without Portfolio

Kim Langridge suggested that the magazine have a dedicated space for a member’s
discussion forum, at which they could put forward views on how the Society was running,
etc.

Reports from Appointed Officers:

Adrian Barak (Films Officer)
In 2007, the Society’s film section has had another successful year, though not nearly so busy
as last year, due partly because I was away for an extended period at the beginning of the year
and we had to forgo our usual March Film meeting. However, and please note, the Film
evening usually scheduled for the latter part of each year will go ahead as planned, at our
London venue, ‘ The Coach & Horses’ Public House in Barnes High Street, on Saturday,
November 17th at 7.00pm for 7.30. I have one or two interesting items to show at that event,
but more of that later.
I have just recently submitted for the second ‘Tranche’ of our £50.000 Lottery Fund Grant,
the request totalling £18,000 to fund the aspect of the Grant requiring us to re-vamp our
existing website so that processed film material can be viewed and downloaded from the site
via the Internet. This phase has been somewhat dormant over the past few months, but once
the requested monies come through, and I am confident that they will, we will proceed apace.
We also have to provide adequate archival storage for the actual 16mm Film material at an
agreed storage venue, in this case the Submarine Museum at Gosport. Once this second
tranche has been received, there will still be a final £7,000 remaining which we will be
expected to ‘draw down’ at the agreed conclusion of the project in March 2008. As I
understand matters, the final amount, once drawn down, can be spent as we wish and I am
hoping to perhaps use it to process further film material.

As part of the Grant application, and since I reported to you at out last AGM, we had to
undertake to do a number of public showings of our film archive, and we said that we would
try and do a total of 10 days of display for the 2006 season. We exceeded that number by a
factor of almost three, actually achieving a total of 28 days. This total includes various two
and three day events because each of these we can legally count as one ‘event’ per day. Over
and above the use of the entire set of projection kit, the Loudspeaker part of the assemblage
has itself been used most effectively in its other role as a very good Public Address system at
various HDS working equipment group events, and this year, even at an event outside the
‘ken’ of the Society, when I used said P.A system to instruct a large crowd of the Public
during a beach walk around one of our local Hastings shipwrecks, the Dutch East Indiaman
‘Amsterdam’ thus further fulfilling one of the criteria laid down by the HLF to educate and
inform.

This year, we have achieved some 5 outings of various elements of the film projection kit to
date, including a showing at the London Dive Show back in March over two days, the one
day event at Pinewood Studios, about which you have heard from Gary Wallace-Potter.
That particular event was augmented by a spectacular display of Film publicity posters by
HDS Member Chris Murphy from his collection of diving-related film memorabilia. We
also took the kit for a two day outing to augment the HDS presence at the Gloucester Docks
Museum in August, which, despite the atrocious weather conditions, attracted quite a number
of people. With the forthcoming November film evening, we will have achieved 6 outings
this year.

Donations to the film archive from members and individuals continue. Gary Wallace-Potter
recently gave me two DVDs, one of a recording of the ‘William Walker/Winchester cathedral
episode from the BBC TV series ‘Cathedral,’ the other being a series of 6 programs made by
ITV West featuring Chris Serle, called ‘Secret Underground’, which includes some historic
Cave Diving footage in one of the programs, including sequences filmed at Wookey Hole. I
have also received as a gift, via a book sale I made, a BBC DVD film of the raising of the
‘Vasa.’ This film in black and white dates from about 1969-is from the ‘Spotlight’ series and
contains some very good diving sequences. I am looking forward to projecting it at our
aforesaid Film evening at the ‘Coach and Horses’ on the 17th November. We also received,
from the Pinewood event, a DVD of underwater sequences depicting our various acting
prowess!

More recently, our Chairman handed over to me a box containing 41 video cassettes and one
photocopy of the book ‘ Oxygen and the Diver,’ from the collection of Dr David Elliott. Dr
Elliott has already gifted to the Society various films of his early experimental work on
underwater habitats and the related diving physiology so these additional items are an
important addition to the archive. I have not yet had a chance to go through the cassettes in
detail, but now need to substantially revise our archive listing. Incidentally, I will eventually
be listing the entire HDS Film archive on the Wedsite.
With that, I will conclude except to say a very big thank you to ALL those Members who
have helped transport, set up, project, take down, re pack, and transport home this set of kit
from and to various venues especially when I haven’t been able to be present. Special thanks
in this department must go to Gary and Melo Wallace-Potter, the indefatigable John
Yarrow, Peter and Cheryl Wingett and Mike Fardell to name but a few.

Mike Fardell: Was there a list of films, etc., available for loan to members?
AB: Yes.

Diana King (Webmaster)

Reported site kept up-to-date with calendar events, WEG reports, HDTs and new items for
the on-line shop.
Last year we reported an average of 40,000 hits per month however, we have had a marked
increase as our average hits per month are now around 50,000.
Our busiest month is March, same as last year.

Monthly history

Countries Hits Pages

Top Ten
United States 17670 2708
Great Britain 2541 336
European Union 1427 189
China 168 165
Australia 668 84
Netherlands 206 73
Canada 498 68
Hong Kong 145 56
Norway 355 50
Spain 482 41
Bottom Five
Taiwan 1 1
Iceland 46 1
Bulgaria 1 1
United Arab Amirates 17 1
South Korea 1 1

We currently have 19 links to other sites:

Historical Diving (1) Modern Diving (11)

The Toronto Antique Divers Group Dive Forum
UK Divers – Networking
Museums (2) Dive in Books
Dive Museum (Lemmer) London Diving Chamber
Isle of Wight Shipwreck Centre Sea Sabres
Deceased North Sea Divers
Diving History (3) Professional Diving Engineering
Diving from the Past into the Future Lambourne Environmental Diving Service
Skin & Scuba 1950s-1980s Offshore Diving Services
Diving Photos Mine Warfare & Clearance Diving Officers
Association
Other (2) Scuba Venture
Scuba Monster
Cheap Life Jackets
Gary Wallace-Potter: Concerning the ‘Keywords’, should we not ensure we have web
content relating to them?
Howard Dykes: The site requires more updating from the latest issues of Historical Diving
Times.
Peter Dick: Advised using the issue before the current one, which he could supply in PDF,
together with photographs (but not content) from the current issue.
Peter Wingett: Thought the front page was too ‘static’, which might put visitors off.

John Hamilton (Archivist)

He was conscious that technology was moving on and was now having difficulty obtaining
camcorder tapes. Twelve years of conference, dinner and other event recordings will have to
be transposed. He does now have a digital recording system.
John Bevan: Thanked him for his continued support.

6. Election of Officers
a) Chairman
The retiring Chairman, John Bevan stood for re-election. There being no other nominations
he was unanimously re-elected for a further 3-year term by those members present.
b) Membership Secretary
The retiring Membership Secretary, Una Smillie stood for re-election. There being no other
nominations he was unanimously re-elected for a further 3-year term by those members
present.
c) Newsletter Editor
The retiring Newsletter Editor, Peter Dick stood for re-election. There being no other
nominations he was unanimously re-elected for a further 3-year term by those members
present.

7. Motions of which due notice has been given

No motions were presented.

8. Review of Subscription Levels

See Treasurer’s report above

9. Any Other Business

Ray Sutcliffe: Noted that a new Director had been appointed at the National Maritime
Museum and thought he should be made aware of the Society’s existence.
Peter Wingett: A new Membership List was being prepared by David Tidmarsh, for which
sponsorship was available.
Nigel Phillips: Thought that the Conference, which was the largest gathering of members
each year, was a better place to bring important matters to the attention of members than the
AGM, whose attendees were mostly already involved in helping the Society. He suggested 5
or 10 minutes be set aside, perhaps before lunch, for this. The meeting agreed this was worth
trying. Action: Committee
Una Smillie: Suggested that one or two committee members could circulate during the lunch
break to ‘spread the word’.
Dr. Lesley Runnalls: Thanked the Society for permission to sell Mary Rose DVDs at the
Conference.
Sir John Rawlins: Suggested an annual prize of a magnum of champagne, to be awarded to
the person recruiting most new members, the bottle to be opened at a meeting.
Gary Wallace-Potter: Was preparing, with Andria Cordani, a draft proposal on the Divers
Index, to be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Peter Wingett: Noted that the Hampshire & Isles of Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology
had offered to assist the Society with the preparation of a children’s book on the history of
diving.
John Hamilton: Proposed a vote of thanks for the organisers of the Conference.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 11.40am

Papers attached to the master copy of these Minutes for record purpose:
1. Report and Financial Statement for year ending 31st March 2007.

Before the Annual General Meeting, the Society’s Trustees approved the Report and
Financial Statements for year ending the 31st March 2007, prior to their being submitted to
the Charity Commission.

hds_agm minutes_2007