{"id":390441,"date":"2026-01-25T23:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390441\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T23:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T23:38:09","slug":"body-found-thought-to-be-swimmer-matthew-upham-who-went-missing-at-budleigh-salterton-on-christmas-day-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390441\/","title":{"rendered":"Body found thought to be swimmer Matthew Upham who went missing at Budleigh Salterton on Christmas Day | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The body of a man who disappeared during a Christmas Day swim in Devon is believed to have been found.<\/p>\n

It is thought to be Matthew Upham, one of two men who went missing at Budleigh Salterton last month.<\/p>\n

Formal identification hasn’t yet taken place, but Devon<\/a> and Cornwall Police said the family of a 64-year-old man from the town had been informed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The body found on Sunday is believed to belong to Matthew Upham. Pic: Facebook<\/p>\n

The force said officers had been called to Exmouth Beach at 3pm today after reports of a body near the shore.<\/p>\n

The body of a 47-year-old who went missing from Budleigh Salterton at the same time as Mr Upham is believed to have been found on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police have not yet confirmed if it is the man – who hasn’t been named.<\/p>\n

Mr Upham, an antiques dealer, was reported to be an experienced sea swimmer.<\/p>\n

Singer Kate Bush was among those who paid tribute, calling him one of her “very dearest friends” and an “extraordinarily kind” man who “lived life to the full”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
New ‘British FBI’ to fight serious crime <\/a>
UK weather: Yellow warnings for heavy rain<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement, his family said they were “heartbroken”<\/a> and that he was “deeply loved and will be forever missed”.<\/p>\n

They also expressed “sincere and heartfelt thanks to the emergency services who responded, particularly the RNLI and coastguard, for their dedication, professionalism, and tireless efforts”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The RNLI said sea conditions off the Devon beach were ‘punishing’. Pic: UKNIP<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

RNLI crews had described sea conditions on the day as “punishing” and some swimmers who turned up on Christmas morning abandoned the event.<\/p>\n

Others went in despite the large waves, and a number of people needed rescuing.<\/p>\n

Warnings for strong winds were in place at the time and a number of swims in the South West had already been cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The body of a man who disappeared during a Christmas Day swim in Devon is believed to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-390441","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\/390441","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=390441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}