Professor Powsey

Albert Edward 'Bert' Powsey (1866–1956), known professionally as Professor Powsey, was a British high diver active between 1900 and 1941.

Powsey was among a number of similar professional high, trick and fancy daredevil divers who performed for crowds on piers and at fairgrounds throughout the UK in the early 20th century. These include Professor Cyril, Professor Gautier, Professor Davenport, Professor Reddish, Zoe Brigden, Walter Tong, and son Herbert Powsey.

Early life Powsey was born in 1866 in Sheerness, Kent. At the age of 13 he embarked on a six-month cruise to the West Indies on a cargo boat and on his return was assistant to a grocer. On 7 September 1880, at 14, he received a Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal for lifesaving as "A. E. Powsey, 'Boy, T S Cornwall" (case number 21075). The T. S. Cornwall, formerly HMS Wellesley, had been a 74-gun ship of the line converted to a floating reformatory or training ship. Powsey apprenticed as a steam pipe fitter, eventually becoming a foreman.

After Southport pier he took to diving at the Southport fair ground/pleasureland.

Dives

Powsey's diving routines included the 'Terrible Cycle Dive', which involved cycling off a ramp positioned above the pier deck. Another was the Sack Dive, in which he dived in a sack, and the 'Sensational Dive in Flames' in which he either was placed in a sack with cotton wool affixed and then doused with petrol set alight just before jumping, or dived into water with petrol on the surface that was set alight. He also dived from an 80-foot tower into a tank with four feet of water. In Southport he offered to dive from an aeroplane at 150 feet but was refused permission.

In 2014, Powsey's grandson Albert recollected watching the dives as a schoolboy, and recalled the following from when he was 11 or 12:

I remember watching and there being a huge crowd of people around. My grandfather would often dive into a small pool and people would wonder why they could not get closer. I remember he would call out "Are you ready, ladies and gentlemen?" Then, as he was about to leap you could hear the intake of breath as everyone gasped, almost as if they did not believe he was going to do it. Then he would plunge down into the water and it would splash out all around him – and that is why they couldn't stand any closer, because they would have got soaked.

'Real photo' postcards of Professor Powsey and contemporary stunt divers are bought, sold and collected to this day, and can be searched and found on online auctions or articles.

On Southport Pier there is a statue of Professor Powsey diving, astride a bicycle.