age of 29 and sought to abandon professional swimming due to lack of money and a desire for the "sensationalism" that diving offered. He once dived with a parachute from an air-plane over the River Mersey. During his career, he performed in front of royalty and entertained a crowd of over 90,000 at the Wembley Arena. In April 1931, he did a stunt dive from a height into a shallow pool with just of water depth, to a backdrop of fireworks. He would later do a similar dive around September 1938 with his cloak set alight and a portion of the pool water also in flames. He became the diving and swimming master at Butlin's seaside resorts around 1946. Retirement Gadsby retired around 1949, yet came out of retirement in August 1953 to dive in place of his son Leslie, who was injured. The act involved diving "in flames, through flames and into flames" from a platform into a deep tank. Gadsby's other son Kenneth also participated in the act, but did not dive. When asked how he felt about the dive after several years into retirement, Gadsby reportedly replied "Not a bit of it", noting it was his lifetime work and that he had learnt it to perfection. During a dive in December 1953, he replaced his injured son and performed a high dive at a fair ground in Carlisle. Gadsby continued to dive into his 70s, once saying "I can do it still if anyone likes to dare me." After retirement, he moved to Hyson Green. Personal He married Nellie Crossland on 20 June 1907 in Nottingham, England. Together they had two sons, Leslie and Ken. Death Gadsby died on 7 February 1958. He was survived by his son Leslie. Popular culture In 2000, a hotel in New Brighton, Merseyside was renamed "Peggy Gadfly's" for a number of years, in reference to Gadsby who was known to dive off New Brighton Pier. References 1882 births 1958 deaths English male divers English male swimmers