Sarah Pitt hears from members of the North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group about their dramatic rescue of five boys lost in an April blizzard on Dartmoor, 38 years ago this Saturday

The weather can change in a heartbeat on Dartmoor — and so it was when five air cadets from Truro set out from Okehampton Army Camp on the morning of Saturday, April 25 1981.

They were on a Ten Tors practice on the high moor, and although they carried a tent just in case, were only planning a day’s expedition.

The weather, though, decided otherwise. By the afternoon the five teenagers were lost in a whirling whiteness of snow. It was a blizzard, unusual for the time of year.

Losing track of their route, they headed instinctively down to seek shelter in a valley. Here, they put up the two-man tent for shelter and crammed in, keeping their spirits up as night fell by telling jokes and singing.

They were tent-bound throughout the next day, Sunday, as the storm continued, crammed into their one sleeping bag to keep warm, sharing their last three biscuits and Polo mints. For a short while, three of the boys headed out to seek help but were driven back by the weather. They headed out into the snow again. They huddled together inside and prepared to wait out the storm.

Meanwhile, a major rescue attempt had been launched, with the Okehampton-based North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team in the vanguard. More than 100 people were involved including the police and marines but it was the volunteers of the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team who were key to the whole thing, for as the police would later say, they really knew the high moor.

And it was members of the Okehampton search and rescue team who eventually found the lost boys on the Monday afternoon close to Widgery Cross above the Dartmoor Inn near Lydford on the western side of the moor.

By this time is was Monday, more than 48 hours after they had set off.

The boys had woken up on Monday morning to find the weather had eased above the tent almost submerged with snow.

After digging themselves out, they followed the tracks of a tractor over the white expanse hoping it might lead to civilisation.

At one point they waved to a rescue helicopter overhead but the crew didn’t see them. Then they spotted the mountain rescue team’s Land Rover.

A female psychic medium consulted by the police prophesied that all the boys would all be dead, close to a summit with a landmark on it.

Thankfully, though, they were all very much alive, and after a check up at Tavistock Hospital, were able to go home to their relieved families.

The two-day search and subsequent rescue was widely reported in the local and national media.

Both the boys themselves and the mountain rescue teams received official commendations afterwards.

Bill Ames of Dartmoor Rescue Group was presented with a ‘good citizenship’ certificate by the then Devon and Cornwall Police chief constable John Alderson.

The citation which accompanied it read: ’Searches were effected of the most desolate parts of the moor in appalling conditions without thought for personal comfort or inconvenience.’

The 16-year-old leader of the air cadets team Richard Stubbs was also presented with a commendation for the mature way he spurred on the team comprising his brother Russell, Stephen King, Darren Green and Roger Pheasant.

The other boys would tell the papers afterwards that he had kept them going when they felt close to giving up.

In those days, as NDSART fundraiser Robbie Taylor pointed out, both the rescuers and the walkers were without the equipment and technology taken for granted today.

‘It would have been a lot harder back then because the technology and clothing wasn’t there. It was canvas not Gortex. They didn’t have mobile phones,’ he said. ‘These days, with GPS, as long as there is a minuscule signal on someone’s mobile phone we can send a text and when they click on it we know through GPS exactly where they are. There was none of that back then though, so we just had to search the moor bit by bit.

‘Because of the bad weather and poor visibility, the teams from the mountain rescue were locked arm in arm as they searched so no one got lost. There were 15ft drifts in places, so it was a major incident. It must have been a massive one to call in the marines.’

Robbie is too young to remember the search himself but he has heard the story from members of NSART who were, including Les Agar, who is still a member to this day.

And recently, in researching the story as part of efforts in the group’s 50th anniversary year, Robbie has traced two of the five boys.

Among them was Roger Pheasant, who was 14 at the time and living with his parents at Tresillian near Truro. He now lives in Bodmin.

’I got a Facebook message back back from him saying “yes, I was an air cadet’ and it turned out that I was talking to the right person!’ said Robbie. ‘I went to his house and he told me the whole story.’

Roger, now in his early 50s, showed Robbie the scrapbook containing cuttings of the press coverage at the time, which included coverage in The Daily Telegraph and a front-page story in The Sun.

‘Roger told me that when they were all taken to hospital the press wanted to take photographs and the parents said no,’ said Robbie.

‘Then they decided to charge one paper £250 to take some for publication and donated that money to the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group. That was a lot of money back then.’

Robbie has also been in touch by phone with another of the boys, Darren Green, who now lives in Blackpool.

He said that the story had intrigued him. ‘It has been fascinating because we don’t ever get to hear about the people who we’ve rescued recently, let alone 38 years ago.

‘With the heavy snow we had last year and it being the anniversary as well as Ten Tors coming up, it seemed a good time to revisit the story.’