DATELINE :- 5th May 2000
BALCOMBE DIES
Passing of an era as cave-diving pioneer dies
Celebrated British cave-diving pioneer Graham Balcombe has died at the age of 93. The rudimentary, largely homemade equipment he and his contemporaries used to tackle the confines of British underground systems from the early 1930s defies modern imagination. With his death has gone a leading light from those early cave-diving years.
John Buxton, Honorary Secretary of the Cave Diving Group, has provided Diver with his own memories of the great man's cave-diving life:
Graham Balcombe, he writes, was an engineer with the Post Office and, as a keen and capable climber, installed aerial systems. While in the company of fellow-engineer Jack Sheppard, now the Cave Diving Group's president, he is said to have done a handstand on the 1sq ft flat top of a 45m radio mast.
Through a meeting with the Northern Cavern and Fell Club, Graham and Jack were introduced to potholing in 1932. Sent to work on radio stations in Somerset, they met leading cavers Ernest Balch and "Digger" Harris, and were taken to Swildon's Hole, which had been explored as far as a sump by 1920. The two reached this by conventional means and, after looking for a bypass, resorted to explosives. The Sunday morning congregation of a church directly above felt the earth move and the vicar was not amused.
In 1934 they decided to enter Swildon's underwater passages, Graham making an unsuccessful attempt to create a snorkel from part of a ladies' bicycle frame with non-return valves, connected to a piece of garden hose. Old clothes were the cave-diving wear of the time, so cold was a vital factor.
Graham used a drysuit fed by a football inflator to pass the sump 300m into the system. Meeting a second sump, he could go no further without a pump operator, so returned and attached a small oxygen cylinder to his device. Solo, he passed the sump but nearly died of hypothermia on the way out. He was found shivering over a candle in the cave.
In 1935, Graham and Jack explored Wookey Hole in loaned Siebe Gorman standard diving gear as far as they could drag their hoses. Over the next decade Graham built an O2 rebreather and used it in various Yorkshire caves. By 1946 his diving equipment had been supplemented by commercial sets and he joined a group in south Wales to tackle a resurgence called Ffynnon Ddu.
This team became the Cave Diving Group, with Graham as Chief Diver, Trainer, Secretary and Treasurer - a benevolent despot! Eventually the strain told and a more conventional committee took his place. In his own words, he was "kicked upstairs" as President.
I first met Graham as a comparatively raw recruit. I was somewhat in awe of him but his bark was worse than his bite. We were partners on two dives before he "retired".
Graham always remained pleased to see people and talk shop, but my wife was amazed by his wide range of interests and ever-enquiring mind.
He will be missed by his friends and leaves a large legacy of books, reports and other articles. He is survived by his stepson.