Retired army officer Malcolm McKinlay drowned in the Kennet and Avon Canal after he fell from an insecure gangplank after he had been drinking.Lt Col McKinlay, 57, was walking on the gangplank to his narrowboat, called The Apple, when he slipped and banged his head on either the plank or the boat and he fell face down into the canal at Wilcot, an inquest in Salisbury heard.

His pet terrier dog, Borda, was found desperately treading water in the canal. The dog was on its lead which was wrapped around Lt Col McKinlay’s shoulders.

Police officers recovered Lt Col McKinlay’s body but he was pronounced dead by a paramedic at the scene on the evening of November 8 last year.

The inquest head there were no suspicious circumstances about Lt Col McKinlay’s death.

He had stayed the previous evening with his partner Dora Kan at her home in London Road, Devizes, and left at 11am on November 8 to go to his narrowboat to do some housework and was due to return to Ms Kan’s house for dinner that evening.

At about 5.55pm the alarm was raised by boat owner Nicholas Dennis, of Semington, who was walking past The Apple and heard a whimpering noise. He shone his torch and saw a dog in the water and a body nearby.

He phoned the police and another boat owner Penelope Mead came and rescued the dog.

Miss Mead said in a statement that she did not walk on the gangplank into Lt Col McKinlay’s boat because she considered it was unsteady.

She said the first police officer on the scene, PC Ivor Noyce, stepped on to the gangplank and slipped. He was saved from falling in the canal by Mr Dennis who grabbed him.

Miss Mead said of the six foot long gangplank: “It was precariously balanced. It had no gripping mechanism to it and it looked more like a scaffolding plank.”

Ms Kan, a pharmacist, told last Friday’s inquest, that Lt Col McKinlay had cracked two of his ribs when he had fallen from his boat when mooring it two months before he died.

A toxicology report found following his death he had 197 milligrammes of alcohol in his blood which was nearly two and a half times the legal drink drive limit.

Wiltshire Coroner David Ridley said: “That would seem to indicate that during the afternoon Malcolm consumed alcohol. Such levels would have resulted in impaired balance and co-ordination and it’s possible it could have had a contributing effect to what happened to him.

“At around 5pm as Malcolm was walking across the gangplank to his boat he slipped and banged his head either on the plank or boat and he fell face down into the water. It’s my belief that it is more than likely than not that Malcolm was unconscious when he hit the water. Sadly he took on board water and drowned.”

He recorded a verdict of accidental death and expressed his condolences to Ms Kan and Lt Col McKinlay’s ex-wife and two children who attended the inquest.

At the time of his death Lt Col McKinlay was working in the army’s military secretaries branch based at Bulford.

He had spent his whole life in the army and served in Bosnia and the first Gulf War.

He was a MINI car enthusiast and he met Ms Kan through a MINI website.

He named his boat, The Apple, after Ms Kan’s MINI car.

Lt Col McKinlay designed the boat and acquired it in December 2007.