Trevor Hampton
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(Captain) Trevor Hampton AFC (28 November 1912 – 21 February 2002) was one of the United Kingdom's first
scuba diver Scuba, originally SCUBA, often expanded to scuba set, is any self contained underwater breathing apparatus, a source of breathing gas used for underwater diving which is carried by the diver. Scuba may also refer to: * Scuba diving Scuba ...
s and helped to develop sport diving in the UK.


Early years

Trevor Arthur Hampton was born in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
on 28 November 1912. He was an apprentice at the
Austin Motor Company The Austin Motor Company Limited was a British manufacturer of motor vehicles, founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin, Herbert Austin in Longbridge. In 1952 it was merged with Morris Motors, Morris Motors Limited in the new holdi ...
and raced motorcycles on the
Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
. He was an avid fan of boating and sailing and at the age of 23 bought a
yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
but had to give it up because his wife was chronically seasick. He joined the RAF before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
becoming a pilot on a
Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
bomber. He later became a senior
test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...
, raised to the rank of flight lieutenant and received the Air Force Cross. While in the RAF at
Lossiemouth Lossiemouth () is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, Moray, Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the ...
in Scotland he started diving, making a crude open-circuit
scuba set A scuba set, originally just scuba, is any breathing apparatus that is entirely carried by an underwater diving, underwater diver and provides the diver with breathing gas at the ambient pressure. ''Scuba'' is an anacronym for self-contained un ...
from a
gas mask A gas mask is a piece of personal protective equipment used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft ...
and ex-RAF
aircrew Aircrew are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions In commercial aviatio ...
oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...
cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...
s.


Post war

After
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he bought a boat took up sailing again but had to give it up because of a knee injury. He set up business as a
marine surveyor A marine surveyor (also referred to as a "yacht & small craft surveyor", "gasoline engine surveyor", diesel engine surveyor", "hull & machinery surveyor" and/or "cargo surveyor") is a person who inspects, surveys, or examines marine vessels in or ...
and
yacht broker A yacht broker is a specialist who serves yacht or boat sellers and/or buyers as a representative for the sale or purchase of a yacht or boat. The yacht broker is paid an agreed commission by the seller to market the yacht for sale, field interest ...
at
Warfleet Creek Warfleet Creek is a small triangular tidal inlet in the west side of the River Dart estuary in England. It is near Dartmouth, Devon. It has steep rocky sides. At low tide there is a stony beach with some small rockpools. British Underwater Cen ...
in
Dartmouth, Devon Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the England, English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies w ...
in
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. He read
Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the ...
's book ''
The Silent World ''The Silent World'' () is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. One of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color, its title derives from Cousteau's 1953 book ' ...
'' and bought a Cousteau-type aqualung from
Siebe Gorman Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company that developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects. The company advertised itself as 'Submarine Engineers'. It was founded by Augu ...
, which had just started making them. He then took several courses on diving. In 1948 his first book, "''Alone at Sea''". about his solo sail to Spain, was privately printed.


British Underwater Centre

In 1953 a young man asked him for aqualung training, and he took £5 for a 3-day training course. This proved to be his next career and as a result, he started the
British Underwater Centre Warfleet Creek is a small triangular tidal inlet in the west side of the River Dart estuary in England. It is near Dartmouth, Devon. It has steep rocky sides. At low tide there is a stony beach with some small rockpools. British Underwater Cen ...
, where he trained many people and some of the first members of the
British Sub-Aqua Club The British Sub-Aqua Club or BSAC has been recognised since 1954 by UK Sport as the national governing body of recreational diving in the United Kingdom. The club was founded in 1953 and at its peak in the mid-1990s had over 50,000 members ...
(BSAC) in aqualung, oxygen
rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantial unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. Oxygen is a ...
diving and
standard diving dress Standard diving dress, also known as hard-hat or copper hat equipment, deep sea diving suit or heavy gear, is a type of diving suit that was formerly used for all relatively deep underwater work that required more than breath-hold duration, whic ...
diving. Over the years he trained around 3000 people. For much of the time, up until the 1960s he used a
Siebe Gorman Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company that developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects. The company advertised itself as 'Submarine Engineers'. It was founded by Augu ...
Mark IV Amphibian oxygen
rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantial unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. Oxygen is a ...
to train divers with in oxygen diving, until in the 1960s he sold it to one of his diving
trainee A trainee is commonly known as an individual taking part in a trainee program within an organization after having graduated from technical and higher courses. A trainee is an official employee of the firm that is being trained to the job they we ...
s. After that he bought a
Cressi-Sub Cressi is one of the largest manufacturers of water sports equipment in the world serving the scuba dive, Snorkeling, snorkel and Human swimming, swim industries. The company's five divisions cover four markets—scuba diving, snorkeling, spearfi ...
sport diving oxygen rebreather from Italy, but after a year its breathing bag perished, and he replaced it with a
Siebe Gorman Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company that developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects. The company advertised itself as 'Submarine Engineers'. It was founded by Augu ...
British naval type breathing bag, which was still as good at 2005. After he sold that to a diving trainee, he used emergency escape rebreathers which he had adapted to give a longer dive duration. He did various commercial diving jobs down the years, including on building the
Avon Dam The Avon Dam is a heritage-listed dam at Avon, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, Australia. It is one of four dams and weirs in the catchment of the Upper Nepean Scheme, providing water to the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wo ...
and the Brixham Breakwater. At the Brixham Breakwater job he had a narrow escape: He found a small hollow under the breakwater and moved some bags of
cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
in to fill it. When he tried to swim out again he found that bags of cement carelessly slung from above had blocked his exit. He had to fight his way out with air running low. He described an incident when a team of trained British naval divers searched for an object lost underwater and did not find it; they then let Captain Hampton have a look, and at once he found it directly under the naval divers' boat, at the center (which had been a blind spot) of their circular search pattern. He kept yachts and boats in Warfleet Creek, Dartmouth. He assumed the title
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
, although he had not been in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
or a large commercial ship, because of his many long voyages in small and middle-sized boats. He and
Johnny Morris Johnny or Johnnie Morris may refer to: * Johnnie Morris (actor) (1887–1969), American comedian and actor *Johnny Morris (television presenter) (1916–1999), British television presenter * Johnny Morris (footballer) (1923–2011), English footbal ...
made a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
film "''Master Diver''". In 1956 he published "''The Master Diver and Underwater Sportsman''". He sold his diving school in 1976, at the age of 63, but the buyers did not have his success and it closed down. Several times he
retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
and then drifted back into working. He died aged 89 on 21 February 2002 evening by bursting of a triple
aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also b ...
, despite emergency surgery in
Torbay Hospital Torbay Hospital in Torquay is the main hospital of South Devon, England. It is managed by the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded as the Torbay Hospital, Provident Dispensary and Eye Infirmary in 1844. ...
. He was survived by his second wife Gwynn, son Gara, and daughter Jill, and two grandsons, Tom Hammerton and Ross Warne.


Famous clients

Trevor Hampton taught these famous people (and others) to scuba dive:- *
Arthur C Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenp ...
*
Richard Dimbleby Frederick Richard Dimbleby (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster who became the BBC's first war correspondent and then its leading TV news commentator. As host of the long-running current affairs pro ...
*
David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...
* Tony Soper


Trevor Hampton and the BSAC

Oscar Gugen and Peter Small decided to form Britain's first diving club, and were trained to scuba dive by Travor Hampton. Afterwards in 1953 they founded the
British Sub-Aqua Club The British Sub-Aqua Club or BSAC has been recognised since 1954 by UK Sport as the national governing body of recreational diving in the United Kingdom. The club was founded in 1953 and at its peak in the mid-1990s had over 50,000 members ...
(BSAC). Oscar made only two dives, but Peter and his girlfriend Sylvia Gregg successfully completed the course. Later, disagreement developed between Trevor Hampton and the BSAC because:- *Trevor Hampton had also encouraged Harold Penman, who was starting up the rival Underwater Explorers Club. *The BSAC's "always dive with a buddy" policy clashed with Trevor Hampton's policy of training divers to dive alone confidently, always with a competent seaman in attendance on the surface .


External links


Obituary at Divernet
including photographs {{DEFAULTSORT:Hampton, Trevor 1912 births 2002 deaths English underwater divers People from Birmingham, West Midlands Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force pilots of World War II