Aharon Solomons
| Aharon Solomons | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 27, 1939 Sutton, Surrey United Kingdom |
| Nationality |
Israel British |
| Occupation | Professional Freediver |
| Spouse(s) |
Joy Corisande Jackson (m. 1960, div. ?) Maria-Teresa "MT" Solomons (m. 1997) |
Aharon Solomons (born September 27, 1939) is an Israeli-British freediver and national record holder.
Born Ernest Henry Child Simpson, Solomons is the son and only child of Ernest Aldrich Simpson and his third wife, the former Mary Raffray (née Mary Huntemuller Kirk). His father was a partner with the shipping brokerage firm Simpson, Spence & Young, and best known as the second husband of Wallis Simpson, who later married the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. Solomons was born and baptised as Ernest Henry Child Simpson at Guard's Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London, England. His mother died in 1941, and his father died in 1958, the same year Ernest H.C. Simpson changed his name to Aharon Solomons.
Solomons spent the early years of his childhood in the UK, India and with friends of his father in Pennsylvania, US. He returned to the UK in 1946 and attended Westbourne House School in Sussex, England, then Harrow School, and finally Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland.
In 1957, he joined the British Army and was inducted into his father's regiment, the Coldstream Guards, and was commissioned as an officer in the Intelligence Corps and served in the Middle East. Following his father's death in 1958, he learned of his Jewish heritage. He decided to move to Israel, later recalling that he suddenly felt he belonged somewhere, that "I had always felt neither English nor American. But I could become Israeli". In 1962, he emigrated to Israel and joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he saw action during the Six-Day War in 1967 and on the Golan Heights front of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. He married Joy Corisande Jackson (April 25, 1932 – September 22, 2010) in 1960; they had two sons, Uri (b. 1964) and Nadav (b. 1965).
The Solomons lived for ten years on kibbutzim and then in Rosh Pinna. From 1975 he traveled in the Sinai, Greece, Micronesia and Mexico, where he settled for a time. He taught scuba for many years in Eilat. In 1992 he met Francisco Ferreras "Pipin", and trained with him in Cuba in the "no limits" and "constant weight" disciplines of freediving.
Solomons married Maria-Teresa "MT" Solomons in 1997 and had another son, Ze'ev, in 1998. The Solomons are currently separated but work and train together in the Freedivers association.[1] Solomons and his wife were members of the Israeli freediving team in Ibiza in 2001 and MT was on the UK team in Egypt in 2008. Both are A.I.D.A Instructor Trainers and teach in Israel, The Turks and Caicos, Greece, and Mexico.
Marcus Greatwood, Aharon's student, quotes Aharon's ideology as a foundation of his system of freediving.[2]
References
- ↑ http://www.freedivers.net
- ↑ http://www.notanx.com/home Archived February 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
