David
James "Jim" Limbrick was born in Deal, Kent where, except
for two years in Wales, he spent his formative years before
joining the Royal Navy at Gosport, Hampshire, as a boy
seaman at the age of 15 years. By the age of 19 he was a
qualified Navy diver. He was involved in much interesting
diving work within the service, not least of which was being
engaged on anti-frogman and mine searches beneath the
British Warships stationed in and around Cyprus during
hostilities there in the 1950's. On honourably completing
his service time left the Navy to take up various civilian
positions as a diver, and as a diver/navigator on oil
exploration projects around the world.
After working in the North Sea in its early years, he
settled with a diving company in the Middle East where he
worked as a diver on some of the world's largest oil-field
installation projects of the time. He later supervised and
then managed divers engaged on oil-field installation,
inspection, and maintenance diving operations, on contract
to the largest oil company in that part of the world. He had
by then visited, lived, and worked in, more than forty
different countries, and flown with just about every world
major airline. He returned to the UK in 1978, taking over
the reins of his angling charter business, and working full
time in Local Government.
