![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766980390_633_Screenshot-2025-12-26-at-16-44-19.png\")
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Kate Bush has expressed her profound sorrow, stating she is “heartbroken” after her friend disappeared during a Christmas Day swim in Devon.<\/p>\n
Matthew Upham, a 63-year-old antiques dealer, remains missing following a large-scale rescue operation initiated on Christmas Day morning in the seaside town of Budleigh Salterton. The alarm was raised after several individuals encountered difficulties in the stormy water.<\/p>\n
While numerous swimmers were successfully pulled from the challenging conditions and received medical attention \u2013 some requiring hospitalisation as a precaution \u2013 two men, one in his 40s and another in his 60s, could not be located.<\/p>\n
The 67-year-old ‘Running Up That Hill’ artist confirmed the news on her website on Sunday, writing: “As you might have heard on the news, Matthew Upham was one of the swimmers who went missing in the sea in Devon on Christmas Day.”<\/p>\n
\u201cMatthew was one of my very dearest friends. I\u2019d known him for 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of those people who touched everyone he met.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extraordinarily kind, thoughtful and lived life to the full.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was also a great deal of fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis family are heartbroken and along with many of his friends, so am I.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatthew was a very strong swimmer. He had a great love for kayaking. He understood that the sea should be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Matthew Upham (YouTube)<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail<\/a> reported Mr Upham had tried to save a woman in distress before being swept away.<\/p>\n Bush added: \u201cThe world has lost someone incredibly special. Thank-you Matthew, for being one of the best friends anyone could have.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement posted to the Instagram<\/a> account of Mr Upham\u2019s business said his family are \u201cheartbroken by the loss\u201d.<\/p>\n It added: \u201cMatthew is deeply loved and will be forever missed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to the emergency services who responded, particularly the RNLI<\/a> and coastguard, for their dedication, professionalism, and tireless efforts during this extremely difficult time. We are profoundly grateful for their compassion and support.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Emergency services were called to Budleigh Salterton on Thursday (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n Commenting on the post, a friend of the antiques dealer described Mr Upham as \u201cthe kindest person\u201d.<\/p>\n They wrote: \u201cThe world will miss such a shining star.\u201d<\/p>\n Another described him as \u201ca beautiful man with the sweetest soul and only had kind words to say about everyone\u201d, while another said he was \u201ca bringer of joy and an inspiration\u201d.<\/p>\n According to his website which linked to the Instagram<\/a> account, Mr Upham ran appointment-only Matthew Upham Antiques on the town\u2019s High Street offering \u201ca captivating assortment of chandeliers sourced from various regions across Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n The website said the chandeliers \u201cbeautifully complement our collection of 18th-century furniture, creating a harmonious blend of timeless elegance\u201d.<\/p>\n The business traded for four decades in London<\/a> before moving to the seaside town.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post shared on Thursday afternoon, East Devon<\/a> District Council urged locals to \u201cthink twice before taking the plunge this festive season\u201d.<\/p>\n The local authority said cold water shock, strong currents and unpredictable weather conditions can turn a \u201cquick dip into a serious emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n The Coastguard said after \u201cextensive shoreline and offshore searches\u201d, its search was stood down at 5pm on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n Devon and Cornwall<\/a> Police have previously said the families of the men were being kept informed of developments.<\/p>\n On Boxing Day, a police spokesman said \u201cboth men remain missing\u201d following the incident and \u201cinquiries are ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n A number of Christmas and Boxing Day swims in Devon and Cornwall<\/a> were cancelled this year because of a yellow weather warning for wind which covered parts of the South West<\/a> and Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-340369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Emergency](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/25144529-3ec14c23-7c13-4ae5-8787-211a71af0444.jpg\")
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