Soldier dies in diving exercise

A SOLDIER died during a diving exercise at a quarry in the final week of an Army training course.

Lance Corporal George Partridge, 27, pictured, was pronounced dead at the National Diving Activity Centre. The ‘exemplary soldier’, of 26 Engineer Regiment, was expecting his first child with wife Zoe.

The death is being probed but the Army said it could not comment further on the ‘tragic diving incident’ last Monday.

There have been a number of deaths in recent years at the 262ft-deep dive site at a flooded quarry in Tidenham, Gloucestershire. Last October, 28-yearold lorry driver Wlodzimierz Jurasz died from the bends.

Lance Corporal Partridge’s father Stephen, 55, said: ‘He was a good soldier and served with honour.’