Anthony Cleon GRANT · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 25 August 2016, one of my assistant coroners, Richard Brittain, commenced an investigation into the death of Anthony Cleon Grant, aged 56 years. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 19 October 2017.

The jury made a narrative determination at inquest, which I attach. I apologise for the delay in the making of this report, brought about because I have been making further enquiries.

Mr Grant was swimming in the public pool at Mile End Leisure Centre (managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited) when he suffered a cardiac event and drifted to the bottom of the pool.

A member of the public noticed him and alerted the lifeguard, who performed an emergency rescue. Lifeguards gave cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but this was not successful and Mr Grant died on poolside.

Mr Grant drifted under the water and remained submerged for five minutes and 41 seconds before a member of the public noticed him and alerted a lifeguard. The lifeguard had been on duty poolside throughout.

Quite apart from the actions of an individual lifeguard, there are many ways that pool safety could have been approached differently that day. The lifeguards could have changed position after half an hour or an hour as had been intended. There could have been more than one lifeguard on poolside. The lifeguards could have been supported by a motion early warning system. These are all matters for the industry to explore.

I write to you specifically because Mr Grant’s family have given their consent for me to forward to you the footage of the pool CCTV from the time when he first got into difficulty to the end of the attempted rescue, in the hope that you will be able to make this, or at least part of this, nationally available as a training tool.

This is obviously an incredibly generous act on the part of Mr Grant’s family, but I imagine that they would prefer Mr Grant’s name not to be used when showing the video, particularly as some of his children are still minors.

I am aware that your organisation has already made training DVDs, but it seems to me that there is something uniquely powerful in lifeguards in training being given the opportunity to watch real events such as those on this clip. It provides the most vivid reminder possible of the need for constant vigilance on poolside.

Once seen, this is a piece of film unlikely to be forgotten, and Mr Grant’s family hope it can be used to save other lives.