Graham Balcombe

Who was Graham Balcombe?

Graham Balcombe, born Francis Graham Balcombe in Manchester, was a pioneer of cave diving in the United Kingdom and a founder of the Cave Diving Group together with Jack Sheppard.

Balcombe began rock climbing in the English Lake District in the 1920s as a Boy Scout. Balcombe continued his love affair with the Lakeland crags during an early posting to Reading, Berkshire, by joining a mountaineering group which later became the Tricouni Club. Balcombe was one the most technically gifted rock climbers of the early 1930s, pioneering three Lakes climbing routes that were technically far ahead of their time during a two-week period in 1934. In 1936 Balcombe lead a party of German climbers on a visit to the Lake district in what was to be his last significant contribution to the activity.

Balcombe worked for the Post Office as a telecommunications engineer where he met Jack Sheppard. The pair became rock climbing partners and while based in Bristol became interested in the caves of the Mendip Hills, particularly Swildon's Hole which they believed connected to the Cheddar Caves. At the time, the limit of exploration was a flooded underwater passage or "syphon".