A DORSET man has said his daughter-in-law, one of three British holidaymakers who drowned while trying to save children from a rip tide in Portugal, was the best daughter-in-law in the world'.

Roy and Jean Dinsmore and their children Alex, 10, and Lydia, 11, were on holiday in the Algarve with two other couples and their children when tragedy struck in Praia do Tonel near Sagre, not far from where Madeline McCann went missing.

Jean, 43, her friends Deborah and Robert Fry and a German holidaymaker died as they tried to rescue Rosie Fry, 11, and brother George, nine.

Roy's father Keith Dinsmore, who moved from Middlesex to Gillingham with wife Barbara when he retired, said Roy, 47, broke the devastating news to them by telephone on Monday night.

"I could tell from his voice he was in shock and he broke down in tears while he was speaking to me," he said.

"He was not clear about the details but said they had been on a beach when the children got into difficulty.

"Jean must have gone in because she was an accomplished swimmer. She was a stronger swimmer than Roy and she did triathlons.

"Roy said he also went in and he and another man were injured with cuts and bruises."

Paying tribute to his late daughter-in-law, Mr Dinsmore said: "Jean was the best daughter-in-law you could ask for.

"She was a very active young lady. She was a qualified part-time accountant. She was the sort of girl that could pick up things and do almost everything."

The couple met shortly before Roy went to work in Brazil, and they married 13 years ago.

Mr Dinsmore said the couple loved entertaining, and their children Alex and Lydia, and Deborah and Robert Fry's children Rosie and George, were in and out of each other's homes a lot in Wootton Bassett, Wilts.

Mr Dinsmore said of his son: "He seems to be holding up pretty well. I do not think he will really start to grieve until he gets home."

Mr Dinsmore said Roy, who works for a power company, had initially been looking after his own two children and the two orphaned children in the villa, which he part-owns, but he believed a relative had come to collect the children.

He said Jean's body would be flown home to Herefordshire, where she has a large family, for burial.