Phil Crow, 68, was one of eight people to lose their lives in open water during the Bank Holiday weekend after trying to rescue his granddaughter at at Tregirls Beach, Cornwall13:53, 27 May 2026Updated 13:53, 27 May 2026A heroic grandfather who died after trying to save the life of his nine-year-old granddaughter has been named.‌Phil Crow, 68, perished as he entered the water at Tregirls Beach, near Padstow in Cornwall on Bank Holiday Monday. The brave man was trying to rescue Sia Briskham, who got into trouble in the water following a sudden change in the tide.‌Mr Crow reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest while in the sea. His wife Tina, 68, was rescued by a passing boat with her granddaughter. They were brought to safety but medics later pronounced the retired stonemason dead at the scene.‌He leaves behind 11 brothers and sisters, as well as five grandchildren and his wife of more than 50 years. His death came over a tragic weekend where seven teenagers died after drowning in the water while the UK was recording record-breaking high temperatures.READ MORE: Heartbroken dad thanks 'two lads' who tried to save son, 13, from reservoirREAD MORE: Six youngsters die in open water in heartbreaking weekend as warnings issuedMrs Crow has now spoken about her husband's bravery and said: "We were jumping up with the waves then all of a sudden we couldn't hit the floor when we landed, it was deeper and was pulling us out.‌"He was shouting at her to lay on her back but she couldn't stand, he pushed her to safety, but doing so meant he couldn't get back himself. He was pushing her feet and just shouting swim, swim, swim," she told MailOnline.He was one of eight people to lose their lives in the water last weekend. Declan Sawyer was discovered during a search of Swanholme Lakes near Lincoln on Sunday. Abbie Carmody-Pepper, also 15, lost her life while bathing at Burrow Beach, Sutton, Dublin.Her death came hours after the body of a teenage girl - identified locally only as Lil - was retrieved from the water at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire. On Monday, 13-year-old Reco Puttock was pulled from the water after he drowned in Leadbeater Dam near Halifax, West Yorkshire. Last night, the body of a boy, 12, was recovered from the River Ribble in Lancashire.‌A sixth young victim, a teenage boy, got into trouble in Rotherham, and was found following a search and rescue operation as police today confirmed a body has been found in the search for a 17-year-old who went missing while swimming in a patch of open water in Cheshire.Professor Karen Luyt, Programme Director for the National Child Mortality Database and Professor of Neonatal Medicine at the University of Bristol, said more needs to be done to educate children.She told the Mirror: "The tragic cases of drowning are shocking - but unfortunately not surprising. NCMD data from a recent thematic report on traumatic deaths showed that over half of child deaths due to drowning occurred in the summer months, and around 37 per cent were in inland bodies of water like rivers or lakes. 196 children died by drowning between 2019 and 2025, and all of those deaths were preventable.Article continues below"There's so much more that could be done to keep children safe. For the last three years the NCMD has been calling for an urgent and focused agenda to address inequalities in access to swimming and water safety lessons."Our data shows that children living in the most deprived neighbourhoods are disproportionately the victims of drowning, and this sets a clear scope for interventions that could be quickly deployed to make a difference. Practical and experiential learning, as well as water safety programmes outdoors, have been shown to support water safety."