Faces in the sand
Beach tributes paid to Great War dead on the ‘32 Pages of the Sea’
1 Sunny Sands, Folkestone, Kent, Lieut Wilfred Owen,
the famous war poet, who was killed in action aged 25 just one week before the armistice.
2
Weymouth, Dorest, Sgt Stanley Robert Mcdougall,
an Australian awarded the Victoria Cross after capturing an enemy machine gun during a German attack at Dernancourt, France, and then repelling the second wave. He survived the war.
3
Lyme Regis, Dorset, Rfn Kulbir Thapa,
the first Gurkha awarded the Victoria Cross after he rescued three wounded comrades while under fire at Fauquissart, France in 2015. He also survived the war.
4 East Looe, Cornwall, Capt Kenneth Walton Grigson,
one of five brothers all killed in the First World War. He died weeks before the Armistice.
5
Porthcurno, Cornwall, Lieut Richard Charles Gravessawle,
who left for the front a week after getting married in July 1914 and was killed by a sniper’s bullet at Ypres three months later.
6 Porthmeor, Cornwall, Capt Edward Hain,
who was killed by artillery fire in Gallipoli in 2015.
7 Perranporth, Cornwall, Archie Jewell,
went to sea, aged 15, and survived the Titanic sinking in 1912, only to be killed three years later when the hospital ship on which he was serving was torpedoed.
8 Saunton Sands, Devon, Capt Ralph George Griffiths Cumine-robson,
of the Royal Engineers was killed just before Christmas 1914 in action near Neuve Chapelle, France.
9 Westonsuper-mare, Somerset, Lt Col John Hay Maitland Hardyman,
became the youngest lieutenant colonel ever commissioned in the Army at age 23. He was killed at Bienvillers, France, in 1918.
10 Swansea, Wales, Dorothy Mary Watson,
was killed, aged 18, along with five other workers in the Pembrey munitions factory explosion in 1917.
11 Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire, Major Charles Morris,
a gifted rower who lifted the Ladies’ Plate at Henley. He died in a German hospital after being wounded in La Courcelette and left in no-mansland.
12 Ynyslas, Ceredigion, Richard Davies,
a labourer and Royal Naval Reservist, who served on the HM Trawler Evangel. He perished along with 24 other crewmen when it hit a mine in the Irish Sea in 1917.
13 Colwyn Bay, Conwy, Pte Ellis Humphrey Evans,
the famous Welsh war poet known as Hedd Wyn who was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.
14 Formby, Merseyside, Capt John Basil Armitage,
trained soldiers before being drafted to serve at the front. He was killed by a stray shell in 1917.
15 Blackpool, Lancashire, Lt Cpl John Arkwright,
shipped out to France in August 1914, four months after getting married. He died three days later in the battle of Le Cateau, fighting a fierce rearguard action after the Battle of Mons.
16 Murlough, County Down, Rfn John Mccance,
who was one of many thousands to be killed at Passchendaele. He has no known grave.
17 Dunree Beach, Donegal, Seaman John Buckley,
one of 354 people to have perished when the SS Laurentic struck two mines in the Atlantic in 1917.
18 Downhill, Londonderry, Staff Nurse Rachel Ferguson,
a volunteer who died in June 1918 while serving in Italy where she contracted broncopneumonia.
19 Ayr, Ayrshire, Lieut Walter Tull,
one of the first black professional footballers. He played for Tottenham Hotspur and went on to become the first black officer to command white troops. He was shot dead at Arras in March 1918.
20 Culla Bay, Benbecula, Duncan Mackinnon,
one of six brothers who fought in the war. He died when the HM Armed Trawler Corona was sunk near Ramsgate, Kent.
21 Scapa Beach, Orkney, Lieut Robert William Taylor,
awarded the Military Cross for directing the fire of his battery guns to break-up the German advance at the Battle of Passchendaele. Was fatally wounded later in the same battle in 1917.
22 Roseisle Beach, Moray, Capt Charles Hamilton Sorley,
a Scottish war poet who was shot in the head by a sniper during the Battle of Loos.
23 West Sands, Fife, Dr Elsie Maud Inglis,
a surgeon and suffragette who set up female-staffed relief hospitals and died of cancer in 1917.
24 Seahouses, Northumberland, Pte William Jonas,
was killed climbing out of his trench at the Somme in 1916, after telling his friend to send his “best regards to the lads at [Clapham] Orient [FC]”.
25 Redcar, North Yorkshire, Pte Theophilus Jones,
the first military casualty on British soil after he died in the 1914 bombing of Hartlepool.
26 Roker, Sunderland, Lieut Hugh
Carr, transferred from the Household Cavalry to the Royal Engineers’ tunnelling company. Was killed when a shell landed near his trench at Ypres in 1916.
27 Sutton-onsea, Lincolnshire, Lieut Basil Perrin Hicks,
a graduate of Rugby School and Trinity College Cambridge. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of Loos.
28 Brancaster, Norfolk, Dvr Stephen Hewitt,
served in Salonika in Greece and died from his wounds in 1916 after being savaged by wolves when out riding.
29-32
the public were invited to draw their own people in the sand at Portstewart Strand, Londonderry. Silhouettes of servicemen and women were drawn on St Ninian’s Beach, Shetland, Gorleston, Norfolk, and Clacton-on-sea, Essex.