A one-year-old boy died while on a fishing trip with his family, a coroner has concluded during a recent inquest.

Melvin Gurung was just one year old when he went on a day-long fishing trip to Manningford Trout Fishery near Pewsey, Wiltshire.

His cause of death was determined as drowning during the inquest on October 13 at Wiltshire Coroner’s Court.

Melvin travelled to the fishery with his parents and two uncles by car from their home in Farnborough, Hampshire on 14 November 2021, just 10 days before Melvin's second birthday.

As they got there, Melvin spent the day playing with his mum or one of the uncles as the rest took turns fishing at the lake.

"This was a trip that the family had done several times in the past," Area coroner Ian Singleton said in court.

One worker at the tranquil fishing site said Melvin was 'running around playing' during the afternoon and was a 'happy little boy'.

In the afternoon, at around 4pm, he was playing with his uncle Amrik Gurung as Melvin's parents went fishing together and his other uncle, Nayan, went to have a nap in their car.

They were playing outside when Amrik had to use the toilet.

He told the almost 2-year-old to stay where he was playing as he went to the toilet.

He said that when he came back about one minute later, Melvin was gone.

He went up towards the parking where they had parked their car to see if he was there, but without any luck.

He woke Nayan up, who helped search for Melvin. 

The police were called to help them search, and they arrived at 4:28pm.

The two officers went down to look for him by the left side of the lake.

Officer Homer said how they were calling out for Melvin as they were looking by the lake when he suddenly heard officer Barrett scream out 'no, no' before running into the lake.

He told the Coroner's court that he had seen something red with white dots in the lake, which later turned out to be a welly boot.

Melvin's body was found around 3-4 inches under the water and was partially covered by weeds, which is why the family hadn't found him before this.

Melvin's uncle Nayan Gurung was present when Officer Barrett pulled out the body from the water and he then identified the body as Melvin.

Officers quickly called for an ambulance and started CPR.

Water came out of Melvin's mouth, nose and ears, and he kept vomiting during the CPR, but showed no signs of being alert.

A volunteer first responder was the first one at the scene and he'd brought a defibrillator.

A few minutes later, more officers and paramedics arrived at the scene.

Melvin was brought into the ambulance as a way to protect him from the cold and try to get his body temperature up again.

As his wet clothes and nappy was taken off him, paramedics confirmed that there were no suspicious bruises or injuries anywhere on his body.

He was flown to Salisbury District Hospital where recitation attempts continued.

He was pronounced dead at 6:38pm, about an hour after arriving at the hospital.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Mundy, arrived at the hospital at 7:57pm and had been told about the death of Melvin in the car ride from Swindon.

After speaking with doctors, she found no reason to believe that the death was anything but accidental.

An inquest at Salisbury, Wiltshire was done by Dr Samantha Holder. She came to the conclusion that the cause of death was the inhalation of water (drowning). 

Mr Singleton found Melvin's cause of death was inhalation of water (drowning) and that it was accidental.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," Mr Singleton told the family.