Remarkable Ray: The World's Oldest SCUBA Diver

At 95-years-young Ray holds the Guinness World Record as the world's oldest SCUBA Diver, a record that he attempts to beat each year on his birthday. He's a popular character amongst the diving community in Cyprus, where he has been living for nearly 20 years, having first come to the island in 1964 on a posting with the Foreign Office. 

Prior to that Ray served in WWII as a Royal Navy & Special Forces radio operator. So when the Royal British Legion Limassol Branch were organising a D-Day 75 commemorative dive at RAF Akrotiri's Sub Aqua Club, who better to take to the water? 

Jade Callaway has been speaking to WWII veteran Ray Woolley in this special 5-part series for Forces Radio BFBS. 

"When I do this I think of the people that I lost, and that's not very nice. I consider myself very lucky that I got through the war, but it's the people that didn't come back that this sort of time reminds me"

From a young age Ray knew he wanted to serve with the Royal Navy, and having been made to wait until his 18th birthday, he went on to join HMS Hyderabad as a radio operator during WWII. The ship was busy running troop convoys around Sicily when Ray received his calling up to join the Special Forces.

"It was a case of need-to-know basis and you just had to be in limbo knowing what what going to happen & where you were going"

Ray's Special Forces detachment found him off the coast of Symi, in the Greek islands on Christmas Eve of 1943, where he was monitoring German troop movements. Information gathering was of vital importance to the allied war effort, but Ray is incredibly humble about his contribution:

"I was one of the first, with my gear and that, to go there to set up a post to transmit to Alexandria to say what had happened"

In 2019 Ray is back in the Mediterranean, living in Cyprus, where he indulges in his favourite pastime, SCUBA Diving. He credits it with keeping him young and told Jade Callaway about when his love affair with the sport began:

"I wouldn't be in the position i'm in today if I hadn't have done this, without a doubt"

Not content with just holding the World Record that he first gained aged 94, Ray beats it each year on his birthday and has plans to do the same again this summer. At RAF Akrotiri's WSBA Sub Aqua Club Ray dives alongside current service personnel. He told Jade Callaway about his connection to the club that he first visited in the 1960s;

"I broke someone's record, someone eventually is going to break mine, but I don't think they'll be able to claim like I can they're a Second World War Veteran, which is rather nice sounding, I think."

Ray will once again be aiming to beat his record this summer, at the turning of his 96th Birthday on August 31st. Watch this space!