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John Stewart Buxton was born in Derby, England in May 1931.
He went to a local school, and a local middle school leading up to the war. As war became inevitable the family moved out of Derby (the home of Rolls Royce) to a village 7 miles South.
He attended the local school for a while but eventually was enrolled at a Grammar School.at Loughborough in Leicestershire. Having achieved the required standard he was enrolled at Nottingham University to do a BSc in Horticulture.
When he graduated he worked at a Horticultural Research Station in Warwickshire. then another at Silsoe in Bedfordshire. Following this he woked as an Autoelectrician. The last 20 years or so of his working life he spent driving Ambulances.
During the War, holidays were not possible near the coasts as is now normal. So they took the form of accommodation ( digs ) at villages in the Derbyshire / Staffordshire Borders Peak District. A lot of walking was done in the limestone area Dales and mine entrances were common. He was not allowed by his (??over protective ) mother to enter. When he got to University he found a Students Mountaineering Club, which had a Caving Section--he could not join fast enough.
A lot of caves ended in pools of muddy water; Enquiries told him that Divers had been through.---he started enquiries to join the Cave Diving Group in 1948 / 1949.
He also joined several caving clubs, Stoke on Trent Pothole Club led by Roy Midwinter of Pottery Fame. the British Speleological Association BSA. After a college caving trip to Somerset he joined the Bristol Exploration Club, BEC.
A number of well known caves and potholes were explored, but steadily Cave Diving became more important. On 31st August 1952 he did his 1st cave dive at Keld Head in N Yorkshire.Almost all diving was done on Rebreathers in this Country at this time. He used a Modified SGAMTU ( Siebe Gorman Amphibian Mark Two )
Later diving used the S-G Port Party Set. This was a long endurance, dual purpose non magnetic set designed to clear the ports of Europe when we invaded. As experience and need arose this set was used with Oxygen / Nitrogen mixtures for deeper diving than 30 feet. Later the Royal Navy UBA ( Universal Breathing Apparatus ) came into CDG use and was used for most of the deepest dives in Wookey Hole.(70 ft ) The apparatus was also used for trial dives to 140 ft.
Early dives used the two part frogman dry suit with a roll up seal at the waist.. This was best rolled by two people, the diver and a dresser at the back. The dresser must have short nails! Later Sladen or Chariot dry suits came along. These had lots of volume and a lot of underwear could be worn. John introduced neoprene wet suits to cave diving and the use of suit inflation for the deeper mixture dives. Flutter valves were always used to clear water from the full face mask. Nearly all cave diving was bottom walking. Fins were regarded as somewhat hazardous!!
The aim of early cave diving was to improve the divers skill / knowledge of the art, but also to explore. John found some virgin cave on his Qualification dive in Clapham Cave in N Yorkshire.
The early CDG divers had good relations with the Navy, and did some interesting deeper dives in the Mining Tank at HMS Vernon and tested in use some of their prototype depth gauges. John and another member were regular guinea pigs at the RNPL ( Royal Navy Physiological Laboratory ) at Alverstoke. Hampshire. Lots of dives were done in a chamber for Peter Bennett, later Dr Peter Bennett of Dan. They needed divers without residual nitrogen in their system. They were also assessed as to their fitness and suitability for Oxygen diving.
The first time John breathed from an Aqualung was at Vernon, where they saw some of their almost prototype twin cylinder aqualungs. When he joined a Sub Aqua Club, he translated to Open Circuit without any problems. When presented with a Drager Rebreather many year later he found he could do an underwater Breathing Drill without a lot of thought.!!
Early memories of Wookey Hole diving are of the beautiful blue green water in the summer, and the dark clouds of sediment stirred up by up- stream divers. Divers usually operated in pairs in those days but were not too involved with watching the other diver, Eventually Solo diving came naturally.
Memories of early dives at Wookey have many facets, they were often tired as diving had to be sychronised with the Show Cave.---so it was always late at night. The leading TDs ( Qualified Trainer Divers ) always had a small queue of apprentices waiting to be taken for a training dive. A lot of useful and interesting diving took place downstream of chamber 1.---bottles were found on the roof. John several times dived out to daylight.from Chamber 1. Early dives deep to Chamber 15 produced an impressive squeeze effect, and the compensating tramlines were whistling quite loudly---hence the introduction of Suit Inflation which was a revelation. Return dives in Wookey were almost always in a black out, firmly contacting the line.
Cave diving has kept John's interest in many ways. As he got older and exploration per se got less important it became interesting to see where the " new boys " had got to and tourist dives became the norm. Now fins and buoyancy devices are used the feeling of weightlessness still has a great attraction.
Now John has retired there is more time for holidays, and he started going abroad. He joined the Rob Palmers Blue Holes Expedition in the Bahamas, and soon got the feel for it. He was the second diver to do the traverse from Benjamin No 1 to Benjamin No 2 off Andros, Bahamas.
Following from a trip to the UK by Bill Stone John volunteered as a support diver on the Wakulla 2 expedition. www.wakulla2.org and spent a happy two months on the project 1998 / 1999 John continued his interest in Bahama Blue Holes until the Boat the Ocean Explorer was sold. But he has strong memories of his deepest and longest dive in The Great North Road on Grand Bahama. Total dive time over 3 hours, deco done in the strong outflow waving like washing on a line, holding on to the bottom. This was in 2002 at the age of 70 +!! He has not retired from diving and is still planning Wookey etc trips for 2008.
His most painful dive was a long rebreather dive in Clapham Beck Head in N Yorkshire without decent gloves water temp about 6 Deg C. When the hotaches started no one dared speak with him.
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| Above: Ist Cave Dive, Keld Head, N Yorkshire Unmodified Sgamtu. ( Siebe Gorman amphibian Mk Two.) Photo Jack Thompson. |
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| Above: Wookey Hole 1956, Somerset. Modified Sgamtu Feb 56. Bulge in canvas cannister cover is wire cutting pliers. Dress 2 part Frogman Dry Suit. Photo Daily Mail. |
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Above: Debriefing after the 1st Cave Dive Keld Head N Yorkshire 31 Aug 1952. Jack Thompson my Co Trainer is about to take photo No 009
Photo by RE( Bob ) Davies.
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| Above: Returning to OEX Ocean Explorer.After a Blue Hole Dive, Funnel Hole, Andros, Bahamas 1996. |
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| Above: A 3 cylinder rig for a longish swim to get fit My local practice lake, Stewart by Lake near Bedford. Photo by Audrey Buxton.Approx 1997 |
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| Above: 10th June 1998, lake, Stewart by Lake near Bedford Just a quick trip to air limits. Photo Mary Godfrey. |
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