Could find very little in a web search for HMS diver (which surprised me) so I took a look at the photo with crew names and searched for Lieutenant Commander Filer, here is what I found so far..
In 1941 Filer was an acting petty officer diver in the newly commissioned battleship Queen Elizabeth, based at Alexandria. His worst experience was in June 1941, when he helped remove the mangled remains of sailors and soldiers from flooded compartments of the cruiser Orion, which had been bombed by the Luftwaffe while evacuating troops from Crete.
Other tasks included the recovery of hundreds of 15in shells from a sunken merchant ship in Alexandria harbour, and searching for the body of a diver whose helmet had been punctured by a shell falling from a crane. Filer also searched unsuccessfully for an aerial mine which had been dropped under the carrier Formidable; after he had failed to find it, the carrier was moved and Filer watched as the mine blew up by delayed action fuse, killing many men.
His most unusual task, however, was travelling by camel, with his diving equipment loaded on a second animal, to a bay west of Alexandria where an Italian torpedo had buried itself in the sand. The type was new and wanted for scientific examination; a similar weapon had blown up and killed the men attempting to defuse it.
Filer carefully dug away the sand around the torpedo until he had revealed three different pistols. He found that his Imperial gauge tools did not fit the torpedo, and, using a hammer and chisel, he tapped out the ring retaining the first pistol. He removed it, along with the primer and detonator, placing them carefully on the sand some distance away.
As he was knocking off the second retaining ring he heard a loud hissing noise. He dropped his tools and raced up the beach. When nothing further happened he returned to complete the job. Later he learned that the detonator in the second pistol had ignited but had failed to set off the 200lb warhead.
As a result of his efforts the torpedo was recovered intact and its secrets revealed to the Allies. Filer and his assistant, Archie Russell, were awarded the George Medal.
Shortly afterwards, when Italian frogmen attacked the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant in Alexandria harbour, Filer was instructed to find out where the invaders had cut through the boom defence nets. He discovered enough gaps, where sections had not been laced together, to allow through several double-decker buses.
Next Filer joined the submarine depot ship Medway as senior diving instructor. With Rommel's army on the borders of Egypt, she was sent to Beirut, where she was sunk on June 30 by three torpedoes from U-372. Filer found himself swimming with two WRNS cipher officers to the destroyer Hero, whose coxswain was a friend of his. He later reflected that, thanks to his friend's access to the rum locker, he needed no counselling.
But he had lost all his possessions in the sinking, and had to walk about in pyjamas before he joined the troopship Monarch of India, which took him home.
After the war Filer became a warrant officer and qualified as a deep diver, one of only nine in the Royal Navy. They dived to depths of up to 300ft, then the limit of human endurance, and he experienced several bouts of "rapture of the deep" – nitrogen intoxication. He only once experienced "the bends", when attempting to surface from 250ft with only one in-water stop.
Later Filer helped locate the submarine Affray, which had been lost in the Channel in 1951; despite the depth and the strong tidal stream scouring the Hurd Deep, he investigated the wreck using an experimental underwater camera which confirmed the submarine's identity. He was appointed MBE.
And an associated photo
Lieutenant-Commander Bill Filer, who has died aged 93, defused a deadly torpedo during the Second World War and led the Navy's diving experiments in peacetime.
Caption reads - Filer (right) briefs his diving team on the shores of the Forth