Don Shires is quite simply, diving royalty. One of the most respected men in his field with a list of major jobs and accomplishments longer than a divers airline and too many stories to tell and plenty, with his special Navy background that he can’t.
From being there right at the forefront of recreational diving in Britain in the 60’s, establishing diving in Lundy and discovering famous wrecks, right through to the Thames Barrier job where he was employing up to 150 commercial divers at any one time.
Don contacted us at the beginning of the first lockdown to see if we were interested in purchasing his complete collection rather than embark on selling it all off separately, a difficult and often aggravating task. A brief description of how perfect, rare and interesting all the kit was we jumped at the chance. The only problem we had was the fact we couldn’t travel up to Great Yarmouth to inspect and get it.
Eventually we managed to get up there and spend a lovely day with him and his wonderful Wife Jeanie, inspecting the kit and getting the deal done over tea and biscuits.
It has been an honour and a privilege to have been able to negotiate with him and secure the collection, getting him a fair price for all of it with the promise of finding good homes for it all via Trinity Marine
Items from Don’s collection will go up for sale on our website on April 19th 10am