Plantation worker drowns in pond

A St John family is in mourning following the unexpected death of 70-year-old Carlisle Hillary Beckles who drowned in a pond at Guinea Plantation on Thursday morning.

Police received the call around 9:10 a.m. that a worker had fallen into the pond and drowned. When they arrived, they learned that Beckles, a resident of Guinea, St John, was fetching water when he met his death.

“Initial investigations suggest that the deceased is in the habit of visiting the pond to fetch water for irrigation purposes. He fell into the water and went under. Two persons went to his assistance but he did not resurface. Assistance was sought from the Barbados Coast Guard in retrieving the body. A medical doctor pronounced death at the scene,” said a statement from the Barbados Police Service.

A Barbados TODAY team on the scene saw personnel from the Coast Guard and Barbados Fire Service retrieve the body just before 12 p.m.

Guinea Plantation worker Kevin McConney was working with Carlisle Beckles just before he drowned.

Kevin McConney, another employee of the plantation, told Barbados TODAY he was doing some work with Beckles shortly before his death. 

“This morning, me and Carlisle were working, and at one point in time I looked around. He [slipped into] the pond, I run for help, he went down about two times, and [after] the third time, he did not come back up,” he recalled, adding that he was traumatised by the incident.

Close family member Wayne Beckles said he was at his nearby home when he received the news.

“I was at home having a cup of tea when one of his colleagues came up and said Carlisle just drowned in the pond here on the plantation. It’s a shock…. Well these things are always a shock, you are never really looking for this sort of thing to happen. It hit the family members who are here really hard,” Beckles said. (SB)