Police heaped praised on eight teenagers who helped recover the body of a boy from a mountain in difficult conditions.

Seven pupils from Peers School, Littlemore, and one from Henley Grammar School took it in turns to carry a stretcher for two hours through deep snow to a ridge where the boy lay.

The 13-year-old from Lincolnshire had plunged 400ft down the notorious Swirrel Edge, at Helvellyn, to his death in the spring of 1970.

The Oxfordshire pupils – Nicholas Manners, 18, and 17-year-olds Stephen Hill, Robert Field, John Webster, Timothy James, Keith Gray, all from Peers, and Don Aldiss, 17, from Henley – had arrived at Patterdale the previous day.

In the letter, the Cumbria Chief Constable thanked the pupils for their “public spirited action in offering much-needed assistance”.

The following day, they were called into action again, carrying their stretcher up the same mountain to help rescue an injured mountain guide who had fallen.

This time, another boy from Peers, Richard Tattersall, 15, was with them.

One of the boys, Nicholas Manners, said at the time: “It was very cold and hard work carrying the stretcher through the snow.”

Mr Evans, PE master at Peers School, said: “Usually, we break them in over a couple of weeks on the fells before they do any tough work.

“They did extremely well in getting the stretcher to where it was needed speedily.”