Thames Club’s Diver

A true professional.

While yacht clubs often call in a diver to check hulls and underwater gear, the Thames Motor Yacht Club (TMYC) at Hampton Court must be unique in employing its own professional diver. Apart from recovering mobile phones, jewellery and cameras, Arthur Wicks of Twickenham, an ex-Royal Navy diver, also regularly inspects TMYC cruisers to check propellers and sterngear for accumulated debris, washed downriver over a nearby weir, which could lead to costly repairs. And he was recently made an honorary member of TMYC when he recovered a member’s wedding ring lost overboard. After World War II Arthur set up Underwater Services looking after Thames passenger boats. His most alarming discovery was the object he brought to the surface off Hampton Court Pier ­ before realising it was an unexploded incendiary bomb.

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