A FORMER member of the air force with a “loving” family was found dead in a Hampshire recreation ground earlier this year.

Phillip Robert Cavill, of Roewood Close, Holbury, was found dead near a pond at Gang Warily Recreation Centre in Fawley on New Year’s Day.

His sister said the 31-year-old had “seemed fine” when he had stayed with her and her partner in Holbury in October 2019, after he returned to the UK following almost two years of living in Hungary with his then-girlfriend.

She added: “He was quite quiet and kept himself to himself.”

Mr Cavill was found laying near the recreation pond by a dog walker just before 9am on January 1.

A post mortem by a pathologist doctor found fatal levels of drugs in his blood, and coroner Jason Pegg ruled that the cause of death was suicide.

During an inquest into Mr Cavill’s death, it was revealed that while he had previously been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a short period of time and had made attempts to take his own life, leaving the air force in 2017 is where his mental health issues appear to have began.

It was heard in the inquest that he had serious depression after leaving the air force, where he had worked for nine years, and that he had returned to the UK where he went on to get a job with Tesco doing deliveries.

He had felt low about wanting to get a better job but had low self-esteem, thought he was socially awkward and felt he didn’t fit in, the inquest heard.