David Wilson
Contributor
Rowena Kerr was not the only British female diving pioneer. Pauline Ady's underwater swimming exploits began even earlier than Kerr’s. She too managed to excel in the water while her main occupation was unrelated to sub-aqua pursuits.
Pauline Ady was "a physiotherapist from Teddington who was a professional scuba diver and was learning to sky dive", to quote the Science Museum Group website at Photographs of Pauline Ady (Physiotherapist - Underwater swimming) | Science Museum Group Collection.
During the early 1950s, Ady was the first learner to enrol when a diving school with little in the way of equipment was founded at Laughing Water Lake in Cobham, a village six miles southeast of Gravesend in the English county of Kent. By the following week, she found herself instructing other learners.
On 4 January 1954, British Pathé issued a short film entitled "Girl Diver" showing Ady "being helped into diving equipment by two men. She wears a silver diving suit plus flippers, oxygen canisters and helmet. She is helped into the water of Laughing Water Lake and one of the men stands in the water beside her as she dives". The film can be viewed online at
Later the same year, Ady appeared in the film still below, which is captioned "Frogmen aid geologists in seabed search -- Miss Pauline Ady, a young physiotherapist and a keen underwater fisher, is towed by the boat as she searches the seabed for a glimpse of the rock. She is wearing a special breathing tube. Frogmen of the London Sub Aqua Club are aiding geologists in the search for a 50 million year old rock. Led by Mr. Jim Phoenix, the party of divers has been exploring the seabed off Pagham, near Bognor, in the hope of making the important geological discovery. They are seeking the mother rock from which a pebble, now in South Kensington (London) Museum, is believed to have originated. August 17, 1954". The still is from the silent film "Aqua Divers" (1954), which can be viewed at
On 15 February 1955, Kingston Sub-Aqua Club was formed at an inaugural meeting held at the Y.M.C.A. Eden St. Kingston. The meeting was opened by Pauline Ady and addressed by Oscar Gugen, who co-founded and then chaired the British Sub-Aqua Club.
British Pathé issued another film starring Ady with others at Kingston Baths on 2 January 1956. This short was entitled "Underwater Party" and featured "quirky stuff of people eating and drinking underwater at a party in a swimming pool". It is viewable online at
The 30 January 1959 issue of the Nottingham Evening Post included the picture below of a then 29-year-old Ady instructing beginners in underwater swimming at Ilford Baths.
In the early 1960s, Ady refocused her attention on parachuting while continuing to work as a physiotherapist. On 25 March 1961, she was hailed as the "Number One Woman Parachutist" by the Montreal Star newspaper in Canada (below) after she recorded 104 drops.
On 24 September 1962, the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post (below) announced "Award to Woman" when the British Parachute Association presented the Swan Cup to Ady.
Ady became Pauline McKay after she married. She died on 9 March 2015, aged 85. By her early thirties, she had acquired the status of an outstanding female role model in the then relatively new fields of recreational diving and parachuting while she was still employed as a health professional in several British hospitals. A life well lived.
Pauline Ady was "a physiotherapist from Teddington who was a professional scuba diver and was learning to sky dive", to quote the Science Museum Group website at Photographs of Pauline Ady (Physiotherapist - Underwater swimming) | Science Museum Group Collection.
During the early 1950s, Ady was the first learner to enrol when a diving school with little in the way of equipment was founded at Laughing Water Lake in Cobham, a village six miles southeast of Gravesend in the English county of Kent. By the following week, she found herself instructing other learners.
On 4 January 1954, British Pathé issued a short film entitled "Girl Diver" showing Ady "being helped into diving equipment by two men. She wears a silver diving suit plus flippers, oxygen canisters and helmet. She is helped into the water of Laughing Water Lake and one of the men stands in the water beside her as she dives". The film can be viewed online at
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Two historical photographs, now also online, show Ady delivering diving lessons. The picture above is captioned "28th April 1954: Pauline Ady, a tutor at an underwater swimming school in Cobham, Kent, explaining the importance and use of fins to her pupils". Accompanying the snapshot below are the words "5th May 1954: Instructor Pauline Ady, (left), coaching a ten-year-old pupil at an underwater swimming school at Laughing Water, Cobham, Kent".Later the same year, Ady appeared in the film still below, which is captioned "Frogmen aid geologists in seabed search -- Miss Pauline Ady, a young physiotherapist and a keen underwater fisher, is towed by the boat as she searches the seabed for a glimpse of the rock. She is wearing a special breathing tube. Frogmen of the London Sub Aqua Club are aiding geologists in the search for a 50 million year old rock. Led by Mr. Jim Phoenix, the party of divers has been exploring the seabed off Pagham, near Bognor, in the hope of making the important geological discovery. They are seeking the mother rock from which a pebble, now in South Kensington (London) Museum, is believed to have originated. August 17, 1954". The still is from the silent film "Aqua Divers" (1954), which can be viewed at
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At the opening of the London Boat Show on 30 December 1954 in Olympia, Ady found herself immersed in a huge water tank with a spectators' viewing window, taking it easy and eating bananas underwater. News of the stunt spread across the Atlantic, where the story was syndicated during the early months of 1955 in several local States-side newspapers, for example the Nebraska Plattsmouth Journal below:
British Pathé issued another film starring Ady with others at Kingston Baths on 2 January 1956. This short was entitled "Underwater Party" and featured "quirky stuff of people eating and drinking underwater at a party in a swimming pool". It is viewable online at
.
The 30 January 1959 issue of the Nottingham Evening Post included the picture below of a then 29-year-old Ady instructing beginners in underwater swimming at Ilford Baths.
