It is with deep regret that the Club reports the sad loss of Bill Bowman recently. Bill passed away peacefully at home, following a long battle with cancer.
Bill joined the Pentland SAC in 1999 and progressed through his Sport Diver,Master Diver and was working towards his Branch Instructor qualification when he became ill and as a result had to stop diving.
Bill was well known as our equipment officer and also as Barbeque Bill, providing excellent meals from his trusty barbeque! Bill worked hard for the club in any role he took on and his enthusiasm inspired members old and new.
One of my personal memories of Bill was once when reading each others logbooks, I started to laugh along with others in the group when a series of dive reports in Bill's book ended. Lost another woolly hat. I think Bill went through a spell when he must have left woolly hats on every dive site around Scotland.
Bill will be greatly missed and all at the Club would like to express their sincere condolences to his wife, Eleanor and all of the Bowman family.     

Kev Watson.  

Bill Bowman was born and brought up in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian and joined Pentland Sub-Aqua Club in 1999, becoming the Branch Equipment Officer / Committee member and a Master Diver who was also working towards his Branch Instructor qualification. He had been married to Eleanor since 1969, and had two daughters, Kelly and Amanda, and a little grandson Liam.

He first became interested in learning to dive after a holiday to Australia, where he tried snorkelling for the first time. He decided to learn to Scuba dive and become qualified so that he could enjoy the freedom to dive deeper. He had also dived on a club trip to Malta in 2002 where we was also the best man at the wedding of Lisa and Mo. He was able to dive in Australia on a return visit and has dived in Tenerife.

Diving was not his only hobby, over the years he had several other hobbies including keeping tropical fish, small bore target rifle shooting, karate, photography, Tai chi, archery and have even tried his hand at Bonsai.

As well as working towards his Branch Instructor award Bill held coaching and judging awards in women's artistic gymnastics and trampolining, Bill will be remembered in Pentland branch as someone who was always determined to push himself to better things, even after a serious illness, he strived to become a Master Diver, which he completed in 2004.
His easy going and often affable manner will sadly be missed as will his sense of direction and his white van, which was not the fastest van on the road, but he would simply smile and say “look at the lovely scenery they would be missing if they were not behind me”. Another of Bill’s pleasures was the regular branch barbeques, no matter where the club dived, Bill would have a kettle barbeque in the back of the white van and no matter the weather could be found cooking up a storm, and because of this earned himself the name Barbeque Bill.

Bill will be sadly missed by those that knew and met him and our thoughts and best wishes go to Eleanor, Kelly, Mandy and Liam.

Brian Lyell 

I first met Bill in 1999 when I joined Pentland Sub Aqua Club, being new and not very confident, Bill came over and made me feel relaxed, he was the first friend I made within the club. I don’t mean to say the club was unfriendly but most of the chat was beyond me in those early days.

Bill had joined a little before me so he could talk to me about diving in a way I could understand.

Due to work commitments I left the club and in that time I heard Bill had been taken ill.

He fought the cancer and came back to the club getting his sports diver award then starting on his Master diver award.

It was around this time I came back to the club and renewed my friendship with him.

The club had organised a training weekend at Oban, Bill was on this trip so I decided to go, along with my brother. We had a great time. I remember the time we dived the pass of brander. We had pulled into the lay-by beside the dive site, when, a few minutes later Bill, with Lou and Ali went flying by, missing us completely. Later, after Bill got back into the lay-by, he decided not to dive and instead got the barbeque organised. After a cold dive Bill’s BBQ was a very welcome pick me up .In honour of his great BBQ we gave Bill the name BBQ Bill, a name he well and truly lived up too!!

The day I passed my sports diver award was the same day Bill became a Master Diver. My first dive as sports diver was at Greenends Gulley with Bill and Andy Tasker. I would have been pretty nervous had it not been for Bill, who reassured me throughout our dive. As I kept looking round to check on my buddies, Bill gave a very reassuring signal and when needed suggested the way I should go.

Bill had started on becoming a Branch Instructor, he only had one assessment left to do, he would have made a great instructor with his patience and understanding.

When Bill became ill again, I , working in his area could drop in to see him. Even though Bill was becoming very ill, he still listened to me and gave advice when I needed it.

I will never forget the day he told me "Brian I have bad news for you". Thats when he gave me the news of his little time left. Still he would cheer me up, he was a strong man.

Bill was a very good friend in the short time I knew him. Always made me feel at ease.

I miss him

I would like to pass on my condolences to Bills wife and family Eleanor, Mandy Kelly and Liam.

Graham Lyell

 Like many others I met Bill when I first joined PSAC.  He was really the first person I started talking to when we went for a drink after the training session in the pool.  Almost immediately we became great friends and went through our training at the same time.

Once we were both qualified I frequently travelled through to the west coast with him, and others - so spent quite a lot of time in his company.  Bill overcame his first battle with cancer and returned to diving with an amazing enthusiasm.  Despite opposition from some in the club Bill took it upon himself - at his own expense to qualify as a nitrox diver - such was his keeness to advance his own abilities.

We had loads of laughs too - Bill had a very laid-back approach to some things - like our diving trip to Oban where he seemed to continually get lost or take large detours!  He quickly redeemed himself though as he decided to miss the last dive and spent the time cooking up some hot food with his now famous barbeque for when we surfaced - great stuff Bill!

In the later stages, his cancer had returned but Bill was still a very welcome visitor to the club and I certainly enjoyed meeting and chatting with him then too.  I often think of Bill and I really miss him......

Steve Taylor

I shall always remember the help and support Bill gave me.

Paul Spence

Bill was the friendliest and most helpful bloke in the club. He helped me with a particularly awkward corner shelf removal. I shall look at that furniture and remember him fondly. I shall shop at my cancer research locally for the upcoming weeks.

Julie Young 

Bill always had a good word to say about everyone. He was thoughtful towards everyone in the club inviting us along to celebrate Eleanor’s birthday and to his daughters wedding reception. Bill always helped out at the Gala days usually being one of the first to volunteer. Bill will be sadly missed, but never forgotten.

Alison Smith 

One of my many memories of Bill is when lou and i went to Oban with him in his van on a club diving weekend and Bill for a change got lost not just once but about 3 times on the way there. I think it took us an extra 2 hours than everybody else. Once there we met up at the pub and it was last orders so we all headed to our B&B. The next morning we headed to the first dive site and you guessed it we got lost again but Bill being Bill he just shrugged it off and at last we got there. Bill was a great guy generous and thoughtful to everyone, a true gentleman. I'll miss you Bill and you'll never be forgotten. The club won't be the same without you. x