A company director drowned after his canoe capsized on a family holiday abroad.

Joseph Banfield was with his Dutch-born wife and their four children in Holland when he died.

They were helping his wife Liselotte's parents celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary with other family members by going out on canoes on a canal near St Anthony's, a village in the province of Gelderland.

Mr Banfield, 75, who was known as Marcus, was with his daughter Ruth and father-in-law when their canoe capsized on August 8.

Rescuers pulled Ruth from an air bubble inside the overturned canoe but Mr Banfield disappeared.

He had been in the water for up to ten minutes before he was found and dragged to the bank.

Paramedics worked on him for 45 minutes and were able to restart his heart.

Mr Banfield, of Craig Meadows, Ringmer, near Lewes, was flown to hospital at Neijmegen but died there three days later.

Mrs Banfield told an inquest at Eastbourne: “Marcus was vivacious, loyal, honest and a joy to know.

“He was a good father to our four children and was completely healthy and fit and did things men much younger than him might find a challenge, but he was not a strong swimmer.”

She said most of the family had taken two or three-man canoes out on a local canal as part of her parents’ anniversary celebrations.

Mrs Banfield said there were not enough life jackets for the adults and no safety instructions were given by the canoe-hire firm.

She said the water in the canal was higher than normal and the canoeists had sheltered under a bridge from a heavy rainstorm before turning back.

Her husband, daughter and father were in a canoe behind most of the others when it overturned.

It is believed the canoe hit either wooden pilings covered by the unusually high water or a tree root.

Pathologist Dr Jane Mercer gave the cause of death as drowning.

Alan Craze, the coroner for East Sussex, recorded a verdict of accidental death.