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‘My concern is the soldiers of today,’ says dad of corporal who died in heat wave fitness test

THE father of a British soldier who died on one of the hottest days of 2016 fears that the army has not learnt from his son’s death.

Corporal Joshua Hoole, 26, collapsed during a fitness test at the Infantry Battle School in the Brecon Beacons on July 19 that year.

His father Phillip believes there were “organisational failings” by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and said it was “imperative” for them to be addressed urgently.

He made the comments today at a pre-inquest review hearing held by coroner Louise Hunt in Birmingham.

With the sun beating down outside the Maple House venue, he said: “I think it’s ironic that it’s the hottest day of the year again.

“My concern is the soldiers of today,” Mr Hoole added, alleging that the MoD’s current guidance for hot weather exercises contains “mistakes … that could impinge on safety now.”

The coroner scheduled the inquest for a three-week hearing in October, after representatives of the MoD and civilian police confirmed that there are currently no charges against any of the soldiers involved in running the fatal fitness test.

Mr Hoole welcomed the coroner’s decision, which followed repeated delays, and said: “I don’t want to get down the road another few months and see another adjournment come in.”

The inquest was originally due to begin on March 18 but was adjourned at the request of the MoD in a letter dated February 26.

It is the only inquest involving the death of British military personnel to have been adjourned at such short notice in the last 12 months.

When it begins, it will hear evidence from high-ranking military officers as well as the soldiers who ran the fitness test.

Mr Hoole said: “For me, there are organisational failings well above those of individual failings.

“Those failings have not been investigated by the MoD, Health and Safety Executive or the civilian police.”

He has specific concerns about the ministry’s Defence Safety Authority (DSA), which probed his son’s death and other similar incidents.

The DSA said Joshua had died from an undiagnosed genetic heart condition, a finding that his father rejects.

It was “clear to me that there’s something not quite right there,” Mr Hoole stressed.

Another soldier, Rifleman MJ Evans, collapsed during a fitness test in Germany a year before Joshua Hoole’s death. In 2013, three soldiers died while doing a special forces selection exercise in the Brecon Beacons during a heatwave.

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