An eleven-year-old boy has died on the way to hospital after severe anaphylactic shock, an inquest opening heard. Jacob Samuel Fraser was at the annual Scout camp of the 12th troop on Wednesday 26 August, when he started struggling to breathe. An ambulance was called and he was on his way to Torbay A&E when he went into cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead on arrival.

Jacob was known to have an allergy to bee stings and carried an EpiPen with him at all times. It is not yet known what other precautions had been taken by the Scout leaders to prevent this tragedy.

A post-mortem gave the cause of death as cardiac and respiratory failure resulting from a severe anaphylactic reaction.

While investigations are ongoing, initial reports state that his death was not suspicious. The coroner adjourned the hearing, and a full inquest will take place in due course.

Tributes have been pouring in for the happy and well-liked boy, with an unofficial shrine set up at the cricket pavilion on Kingskerswell village green, near to where Jacob loved to play football.

Robin stops and puts the newspaper clipping down.

‘Why did Josie keep this?’ he asks, but Freya just shrugs.

Robin turns his attention to the box of notebooks. He carefully takes them out of the container, creating teetering piles on the table. While he searches, Freya picks up a few, opening them up to random pages.

‘You were right: he was using them as a diary,’ she says. She shows him an entry.

At the top of the page are the usual weather recordings. Temp: 18°C, wind speed: 3 m/s, rainfall: 2 mm. And underneath, a few lines. School crap, chosen last in PE. Failing in English, got a B- on Mockingbird report. He smiles at that.

‘Only Finn would think a B- was failing,’ he says. He looks back to the box. ‘Oh, here we are,’ he says, pulling the notebook out.

JUL–DEC 92 it says in block capitals on the cover. Robin places it in front of him and starts to read, lunch forgotten.

It starts in the same way as the others. The weather was hot that July, temperatures all in excess of thirty degrees, rainfall at zero. Finn’s entries are brief, but consistent.

Went to hospital with Rob, he’s broken his leg, stupid twat. Now he won’t be able to come to camp. Robin snorts. Nice to know he wasn’t the only selfish teenager around at the time.

The next day: Worried about camp. Without Robin there, what?? What, what? Robin thinks. Perhaps I shouldn’t go, it concludes.

But he had, Robin knows. He flicks ahead to the dates of the Scout camp. The handwriting changes: the weather measurements written in a female script, one Robin recognises as Josie’s. She’d clearly been under strict instructions to keep up the hard work while Finn was away.