This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

A young soldier who collapsed and died during a army fitness exercise on a hot summer’s day in the Brecon Beacons was one of 18 who dropped out, were withdrawn or fell ill, an inquest was told.

Cpl Joshua Hoole, 26, died three years after three army reservists suffered fatal heat illness during an SAS selection march in the same area.

Hoole, of 1 Rifles, was carrying 25kg (55lb) of equipment when he collapsed 400 metres from the end of the eight-mile annual fitness test course on 19 July 2016.

The march in south Wales had been due to begin at 11am but started at 7am because particularly hot weather was forecast, the inquest in Birmingham heard on Tuesday.

When the group arrived at the start of the exercise shortly before 6.30am, the temperature was 17C (63F).

When the troops were half-way round, 10 had withdrawn, with one complaining of having a “pulsating head – feeling too hot”, and another having “difficulty breathing due to the heat”.

An hour into the march, L/Cpl George Knight was withdrawn, and later described “blanking out and collapsing into a hedge”. Another soldier also withdrew after feeling “dizziness and confusion”.

SSgt Richard Jones, a Royal military police investigator, said Hoole collapsed at 8.52am, and despite the efforts of base medics, paramedics, and an air ambulance doctor, was pronounced dead at 9.39am.

In total, 18 out of 41 soldiers dropped out, collapsed or were withdrawn by the course directing staff, including Hoole.

Jones told the inquest that Cpt Colin Newfer, had been interviewed under caution over an allegation that he invited Knight and other soldiers to change statements about what had happened.

A 2017 defence service inquiry report concluded that Hoole, of Ecclefechan in Dumfries and Galloway, died as a result of an undiagnosed underlying medical condition, not as a direct consequence of taking part in the annual fitness test.

The conclusion is being challenged by Phillip Hoole, the father of Joshua and a former soldier, who successfully applied for an inquest to be resumed into the death and believes there were organisational failings in the way the exercise was handled.

Phillip Hoole told the inquest: “He was a young man that was going places, with a great future ahead of him. He shone his light on all of us. Had his life not been extinguished, I am sure that he would have achieved much more.”

He added: “As a son, grandson, brother, friend, peer, leader and mentor or just an acquaintance, he had the ability to make you feel better about your own life. His life might have been extinguished but his love lives on, in all of us. Always swift and bold – and never forgotten.”

Hoole’s inquest is being keenly watched by relatives of the three men who died in the SAS trial in the Brecon Beacons in July 2013.

Louise Hunt, the coroner presiding in the Hoole inquest, concluded in 2015 that there were a “catalogue of very serious mistakes” made by many people involved in the planning and execution of the SAS march and called for changes to be made in how exercises are organised on hot days.

Bryher Dunsby, the widow of one of the men who died in 2013, Cpl James Dunsby, said: “My wish is that the MoD chooses to be truthful and transparent during the course of this inquest. I hope that Joshua’s family and those closest to him get answers in a respectful and honourable way from the MoD.”

The inquest continues.