Hundreds of mourners have lined the streets of a Scottish village to pay their last respects to a soldier who died on a training exercise on the hottest day of the year.
More than 200 people, including soldiers in uniform, stood in silence as Cpl Joshua Hoole’s funeral cortege passed through his home village of Ecclefechan, near Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. In driving rain, the hearse was led by a lone piper and carried floral tributes.
Hoole, of the Rifles infantry regiment, died last week in Brecon, Wales, after collapsing on the hottest day of the year, close to where three recruits suffered fatal heat illness in 2013 on an SAS test march.
The coincidence led to fears that the Ministry of Defence may not have learned lessons about how to keep service personnel safe in very hot weather. Tests are ongoing to find out what caused Hoole’s death.
Before the funeral, Hoole’s father said it was possible that an underlying heart problem could have been to blame.
A former sergeant major and an Iraq veteran, Phillip Hoole, 54, told the North West Evening Mail: “Josh wouldn’t have wanted the soldiers that were with him, or the medics, to feel any personal blame. He was doing his job and he knew the risks.
“Josh wouldn’t have been happy with the way that people have had a knee-jerk reaction straight away simply because it was the hottest day of the year. People have started to point the finger at the army.”
Hoole, 26, had been due to marry his fiancee, Rachael McKie, next year and was to be best man at his brother Tyrone’s wedding in Edinburgh on Saturday.
Phillip Hoole said his son had been about 200 metres from the course finish line when he collapsed. He said it had been a normal run “with no extra beastings” and had been done within the confines laid down by the army.
Hoole was one of about 20 soldiers who took part in a 13km march on lanes around the school of infantry in Brecon on 19 July. They left at 7am, by which time the temperature in the area was already 17.6C. It had risen to 22.3C when they returned at 9am.
Each soldier was dressed in full combat clothing and boots and they were carrying 25kg rucksacks, but the march was not seen as a difficult one and did not involve severe climbs. The soldiers carried water and there were water stations along the route.
The exercise was organised by Hoole’s own regiment to make sure he and other candidates were fit enough to take part in a demanding platoon sergeants’ battle course, which is run by the school of infantry. An army source compared the march to an MOT – an annual test to make sure soldiers had a basic level of fitness, but one that was much less gruelling than the SAS test.
The funeral cortege made its way to the Crichton memorial church in Dumfries, where the coffin was carried by a military party.
