A Yelverton man is releasing a second print run of his book about the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team – Tavistock (DSRT) to raise funds for the group.

The book was written by Henry Guly, a DSRT team member for 36 years, and recounts the history of the mountain rescue group along with some of his personal experiences as a volunteer.

It was originally meant to mark the team’s 50th anniversary in 2018, but due to unforeseen circumstances and an error in the first print run, publication was delayed. Henry first started to write it as a straightforward history of the team, but decided to add some colour to the retelling by describing the team’s work and sharing some of his own experiences.

He said: “I have always been interested in history. It started off as a history but that all seemed a bit boring, so I thought I would try to explain how the team worked, giving lots of examples, lots of searches, some of which lasted five minutes and some, weeks.”

Since he joined in 1987, Henry has witnessed multiple technological changes that have altered how the team functions, including the introduction of mobile phones and the increasing accessibility of GPS.

With his medical background, Henry said his most vivid memories were not of the more upsetting aspects of the job, such as the retrieval of dead bodies.

“I used to work in accident and emergency. I’d seen lots of things, so there was nothing that made a major impact on me by comparison with other members when we were called out to collect a dead body – a few from natural causes and a number of suicides. The thing that comes to mind is some of the weathers we went out in,” he said.

The second print run corrects the error in the first – the omission of page 190 and a duplication of page 192.

As with most mountain rescue teams in England and Wales, DSRT - Tavistock gets no official funding from central Government. Instead, the team relies solely on grants and fundraising campaigns to cover its operational costs.

The team’s day-to-day running costs thousands of pounds a year, but Henry explained that this does not account for any additional costs that might be needed if service expansions are required or a new vehicle needs to be purchased.

DSRT - Tavistock has published Henry’s book privately to ensure it receives as many of the funds as possible.

Dartmoor is served by four sister teams based in Tavistock, Ashburton, Okehampton and Plymouth. However, we often find that the police require the teams’ services throughout Devon and Cornwall.

The Dartmoor Rescue Group was formed in Tavistock in April 1968 to help the police provide an efficient search-and-rescue service on Dartmoor and in other remote areas. At first, the four teams were all one charity, but this changed several years ago when they became self-governing, and each team was renamed Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team, followed by its home base.

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