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 started diving in 1978 and since 1989 has been the Operations Director of a successful diving and marine civil engineering and subsea contractor that has worked in over 67 countries around the world.
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

Jim Cullen is a Director of ‘Jim Cullen Consulting Ltd’ and has over 17 years experience working for Subsea7 in the oil and gas industry. Prior to that he spent 16 years at Halliburton and Brown and Root as Principal Engineer.

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