The Historical Diving Society
Biographies of Committee Members

Dr John Bevan, Chairman

Founder Chairman of the HDS (1990); First Class Diver, National Underwater Instructor, ex-Regional Coach (BSAC); first DIVER magazine Diver of the Year (1970); ex-MOD diving scientist; holder of world record simulated dive to 1500 ft (1970); Royal Navy Ship's Diver Officer; Professional Diver HSE Part 1; Saturation Diving Life Support Supervisor; MSc in neurophysiology of diving; PhD in early development of diving equipment; author of The Infernal Diver; publisher of The Professional Diver's Handbook.

Reg Vallintine, Vice Chairman

Reg Vallintine has been involved in the underwater world since his first aqualung dive in 1954 and has a special interest in the development of autonomous equipment. He organises the Annual Conference, Half-day conferences, visits and book meetings for the Society. Has spoken on the history of diving at numerous conferences and his books include Divers and Diving (a history). Contact at 13 Glendower Road, London SW14 8NY.
tel: +44 (0)20 8876 0735 fax:+44 (0)20 8878 4131

John W Smillie, WEGN organiser

Born 1941, Lived in Plymouth; 
1958 - Joined HM Dockyard Devonport as a Shipwright
1959 - Started ‘Diving’ as a member of ‘The Spearfishing Club of Great Britain
1960 - First started using tanks for diving
1965 - Qualified as a Shipwright Standard Diver at HMS Safeguard, Rosyth, worked on ships and general dockyard maintainance diving at both Rosyth and Devonport Dockyards.
1975 – Qualified using the navy SDDE equipment at HMS Rosyth
1984 – Joined BSAC and is now qualified as Advanced Diver
1991 – Joined Historical Diving Society
Still diving both historically and for pleasure (scuba)

Peter Dick, Historical Diving Times editor

Peter began his working life in a research laboratory before moving on to his first love of diving, where he ended up running the first diving school on Malta during the 1960s, while doing winter commercial diving work in North Africa. After passing his three star CMAS instructor exam he moved on to a diving school in East Africa and was then in charge of diving on an expedition before finally taking on a Comex bell diving course in Marseille, after which he worked as a commercial deep diver in the North Sea. Following a decompression accident he worked in a supervisory role on some of the early North Sea subsea structural inspections before and after becoming an underwater engineering consultant. He has participated in and carried out a number of consultancy studies, concerned with manned and unmanned deep water intervention methods. Peter still dives regularly for pleasure and is the editor of the Historical Diving Times.