Boat Tragedy Claims Swindon Father And Son 

Peatmoor family suffer holiday nightmare as early investigations show victims may not have been wearing life jackets

 

David Thomas, 50, and his son, Stephen Thomas, 18, from Peatmoor have been named as two of the victims of the Canadian whale boat disaster.

 

They died alongside three other Britons when the whale-watching boat, Leviathan II, they were travelling in sank 8-miles off the coast near Vancouver Island.

 

 
David's wife and Stephen's mother, Julie, survived the capsizing and is recovering in hospital, with brother Paul, who has flown to Canada after the accident, at her bedside.

 

Life jackets

 

Initial investigations into the tragedy, however, appear to show none of the five British victims had been wearing life jackets at the time.

 

Stephen Thomas, who suffered from Down's Syndrome, was a talented photographer and recently won a national competition for a landscape image taken the last time the family holidayed in Canada.