A DIVER who died at the National Diving and Activity Centre, Tidenham, last month has been named as 52-year-old Richard Sanders from Great Yarmouth.

An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned to September 19 by the Gloucestershire Coroner, who said a post-mortem had failed to establish a cause of death and further inquiries were being made.

Mr Sanders, who was married and known as Ricky, was pulled from the water around 5.20pm on Thursday, April 11, but emergency services pronounced him dead at the scene.

He was training for a diving expedition to the Royal Navy’s wartime deep water harbour at Scapa Flow when he got into difficulties.

Friends have launched a JustGiving appeal in tribute to him in aid of Deptherapy, a scuba therapy programme for seriously injured people.

One fellow diver posted that he was “full of enthusiasm, determined, hard working, and just an all round good bloke.” His funeral was held in his home town last Thursday (May 9).

On the morning of the latest tragedy, centre staff had just lowered a “new scuba attraction” – ‘The Hyperbaric Chamber’ – into place.

The former Dayhouse Quarry is the UK’s deepest inland dive site and is popular with technical and free divers.