Former Corby man found dead on holiday in Canaries

Iain McKellar, 53, was found in the swimming pool at the Hotel Oasis Village in the north of Fuerteventura in the early hours of Saturday (March 30).

The former Beanfield Comprehensive School was pronounced dead at the scene despite a 45-minute attempt revive him.

Iain grew up in Corby and met his wife Yvonne in the town. He moved away from the town in 2003, ending up in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, where both his parents had been born and where he had spent holidays with his family as a child. His parents originally came to Corby in the 1960s.

He still had many friends in the town and was described by one of them on social media as ‘a funny, genuine guy’.

He became a seaweed salesman after a redundancy, harvesting the island’s best seaweed by hand using a bucket and a clam shell and selling it online to some of the country’s best restaurants. He had supplied seaweed to famous kitchens including Claridges, the kitchen Edinburgh, Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley in London, L'enclume in Cumbria and The Burlington in Yorkshire as well as to TV shows including The Great British Menu, Big Brother and Masterchef: The Professionals.

The cause of death has not yet been established. It is known that Iain had suffered a burst appendix just a few weeks ago from which he was recovering.

A spokesman for the emergency services centre said: “A 53-year-old British man has been pronounced dead after being found floating in a swimming pool in the municipality of La Oliva in Fuerteventura.

“We received an alert at 12.52am from a hotel reception informing us a person had been found floating in the water.

“An emergency response was immediately activated and private health workers at the hotel and emergency responders tried to revive the man who had gone into cardiac arrest.

“But none of the attempts to save his life were successful and a doctor from a local health centre subsequently confirmed his death.

“Civil Guard officers have taken charge of the case. Local police cooperated with the emergency response.”

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We are aware of a British man who has died in Fuerteventura and are in touch with the relevant authorities.”