High Court judge to conduct inquiry into boy’s death in polar bear attack

A HIGH Court judge will chair an independent inquiry into the death of an Eton schoolboy killed by a polar bear during a trekking expedition to the arctic, it has been announced.

Horatio Chapple, 17, was killed and three of his friends were injured when the bear attacked them on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.

The 13-strong group from the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) were sleeping in their tents on the remote Von Postbreen glacier near Longyearbyen when the 250kg bear struck, at about 7:30am on 5 August.

Today, the BSES announced Sir David Steel will preside over the inquiry, due to begin next month, and publish his findings in the New Year.

Sir David, 68, will take up the post when he retires from the High Court.

The judge will work independently of BSES and his work will encompass:

n The identification of all relevant facts and circumstances which led to the incident;

n Consideration of all aspects of the expedition from expedition planning, governance, provisioning, recruitment, training, implementation, management and incident response;

n The conduct of voluntary interviews with witnesses and all those directly affected by the incident;

n Co-operation with and consideration of any available findings from investigations by the Norwegian authorities.

The BSES said a webpage would be set up allowing people to contribute to the inquiry.