TRIBUTES have been paid to a Hampshire pensioner who drowned during a holiday in Greece.

Accountant Geoffrey Winwood was a leading member of Hythe Sailing Club and a former secretary of Hythe and District Historians.

An inquest at Southampton Coroners Court heard medics originally thought he suffered a heart attack or a stroke while he was swimming near to a hotel in Kalithen on the island of Rhodes.

But a translation of a post mortem carried out in Greece revealed he had drowned.

Mr Winwood, 70, of Sycamore Road, Hythe, had been enjoying his holiday with his wife Patricia where they met friends from Switzerland.

The couple and friends were swimming but Patricia said she then looked to see her partner was being carried out of the water.

The hearing was told a small boat had passed by covering them with a wave and Mr Winwood had started to swim back to the shore.

Nurses and doctors failed to revive him on the beach.

Mr Winwood, who had a small yacht, was a trustee of Hythe Sailing Club as well as being a former treasurer of the organisation.

Coroner Keith Wiseman recorded a verdict of accidental death.