The HDS Board and Officers
Our Board members have a wide range of backgrounds from Military Diver to Vice Chairmanships in international organisations. Several members are Managing Directors of their own businesses.
As a result the pool of social and managerial skills is impressive and it underpins our strength and development. Our Board is supported by an advisory panel with expertise in various aspects of diving including medical, scientific and military diving history.
All our Board members are unpaid volunteers.
An organigram of our Board Members can be found here
President
Surgeon Vice-Admiral Philip Raffaelli, CB, QHP, FRCP
Philip Raffaelli joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1976. Graduating from Edinburgh University in 1979 he joined the Submarine Service. In 1987 he achieved an MSc with distinction in occupational medicine. His distinguished career included being appointed Director of Health (Navy) in 1999 and Honorary Physician to the Queen in 2005. In 2009 he assumed the role of Surgeon General in the rank of Surgeon Vice Admiral.
HONORARY VICE PRESIDENTS
The HDS Vice President is an honorary title bestowed by the Board upon a member or individual who has a proven record of working and supporting the Society over a long period of time. We have three Honorary Vice Presidents and we thank them for their invaluable contributions to the Society over many years.
MICHAEL FARDELL • JOHN SMILLIE
The Elected Board of Directors
Chair
Mike O’Meara
Mike joined the RN at the age of 17 where he qualified as a Clearance Diver and left the Navy in 1975 as a CD1 diving supervisor to join the offshore diving industry. Within 3 years he was a Diving Superintendent; he went on to hold several senior positions rising to Vice President responsible for Health Safety Security Environment and Quality with Subsea 7.
In 1981 he was responsible for the successful salvage of £40 million of gold bullion from HMS Edinburgh in the Barents Sea.
He is Chairman of the HDS with special responsibility for the Diving Museum’s accreditation.
Vice Chair
Kevin Casey
Kevin Casey is from Melbourne Australia. He started work as a civil engineering draftsman, then as a rigger, diver’s attendant, air diver, air diving supervisor and saturation diver in the offshore oil industry. He is Managing Director of www.buyhistoryprints.com. He is a member of the South East Museums Development Programme’s Advisory Panel and committee member of the Friends of Stokes Bay and Gosport Society. In 2018 he was elected onto Gosport Borough Council. He has been a member of the HDS since 1991 and Museum Director for 11 years.
Treasurer
Vacant
Secretary
Vacant
Working Equipment Group Officer
Ty Burton
Ty has been a member of the HDS since 2002.
Publications Editor
Peter Dick
Peter developed a long standing interest history of diving while working offshore in the 1970s. He has been a member of the HDS from its inception and presently edits the Historical Diving Times and International Journal of Diving History for the Society.
Museum Director
Kevin Casey
Kevin Casey is from Melbourne Australia. He started work as a civil engineering draftsman, then as a rigger, diver’s attendant, air diver, air diving supervisor and saturation diver in the offshore oil industry. He is Managing Director of www.buyhistoryprints.com. He is a member of the South East Museums Development Programme’s Advisory Panel and committee member of the Friends of Stokes Bay and Gosport Society. In 2018 he was elected onto Gosport Borough Council. He has been a member of the HDS since 1991 and Museum Director for 11 years.
Member Without Portfolio
Steve Roue
Steve is also a director of the Association of Diving Contractors (ADC) and the Marine & Offshore Renewables Group (MOR Group), as well as a founding and still serving member of the International Shipwreck Conference and is the President of the Plymouth Sound Branch of the BSAC.
Member Without Portfolio
Liz James
Liz James is the Group Environmental Director of Subsea7
She started her career as the first female professional offshore diver in the North Sea. Since then she has worked in a variety of corporate, management and leadership roles and has over 30 years’ experience working in the oil and gas industry including Project Manager/Director roles.
Prior to joining Subsea7 she worked as a Lead Project Engineer for Saipem in London, and earlier for Duke Energy in Australia, Phillips Petroleum, Conoco, British Gas and Maersk. She has trained in Management of complex programmes, Executive leadership training, Kidnap incident management training and Women in business coaching.
Member Without Portfolio
Jim Cullen
Member Without Portfolio
Tony Marshall
Tony is the former Vice Chairman of the British Sub Aqua Club and the Managing Director of Collins and Chambers, a diving equipment retailer. He has acted as Treasurer for the Society for over 9 years and has been a member of the HDS since 2008.
Observer
Catherine Smith
Catherine is a first year PhD candidate at the University of Manchester whose project is on the cultural history of diving. She graduated with a masters from the University of Aberdeen in 2021; her thesis was on the relationship between the monarchy and lifesaving humanitarianism in the nineteenth century.
She has been diving since 2012 mainly with the Aberdeen Sub-Aqua Club. She has dived both in UK (North East Scotland, St Kilda, Sound of Mull and Scapa Flow) as well as overseas including Malta.
Appointed Officers
Archivist Gary Wallace Potter
Books Peter Jackson
Collections Manager Nigel Phillips
Estates Manager Les Rutherford
Exhibitions Officer Vacant
Films Adrian Barak
Historic Divers’ Index Gary Wallace Potter
Historic Equipment Peter Wingett
Membership (acting) Ann Bevan
Media & Shop Ann Bevan
Oral History Vacant
Royal Navy Diver’s Index Ginge Fullen QGM
Museum Safety Officer Cdr Martin Marks OBE
Museum Cashier Martyn Bellamy
Museum PR Helen Rutherford
Advisory Panel
Cdr Robert Hoole RN
Gavin Anthony
Ric Wharton
Professor Peter Bennett
