Portraits of West’s Great War dead draw crowds to beaches

Five Westcountry men who lost their lives in the First World War are to be commemorated on the region’s beaches in one of the centrepieces of the 100th anniversary of the end of the conflict.

Huge portraits of the casualties will be created in the sand on Sunday, November 11 as part of Pages of the Sea, Armistice commission led by the film director , Danny Boyle, the man behind the London Olympics ceremonies.

Artists will create 30metre by 20metre (roughly 100ft by 65ft) images of the five, to be washed away gradually as the tide comes in.

A portrait of Lieutenant Richard Graves-Sawle will be created on Porthcurno Beach near Land’s End. He grew up in Porthpean, near St Austell.

Captain Edward Hain, of St Ives, will be the image on Porthmeor in the town, and Capt Kenneth Walton Grigson will feature on the beach at East Looe, four miles from his birthplace at Pelynt.

Bude-born Archibald Jewell will be portrayed farther down the north Cornwall coast on Perranporth Beach, and a giant image of Capt Ralph Cumine-Robson will be created on Saunton Sands, not far from his family’s home in Barnstaple.

On all of the beaches, members of the public can also get involved by creating stencilled portraits of other people whose lives were lost or affected by the Great War.

The Eden Project, which is leading the commemorations at Porthmeor, Perranporth, East Looe and Saunton Sands, said there was a great response from people who wanted to get involved.

“At Eden we love bringing people together, and Pages of the Sea will connect people with our shared past right here on our local beaches,” Lindsey Brummitt, Eden’s programme director, told the Western Morning News.

“We’ve had an amazing response from individuals, schools and community groups wanting to get involved.

“The incredible portraits, public stencils and specially commissioned poem will enable anyone and everyone who comes along to mark 100 years since Armistice and the end of the First World War in their own personal way.

“We are really excited to be part of it and to be able to engage local people in our history in this way.”

The five beaches in Devon and Cornwall are among 32 around the UK involved in the project remembering all those who left the islands’ shores during the 1914-18 conflict.

Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, has been invited by Mr Boyle to write a new poem, which will be read by individuals, families and communities as they gather on beaches on November 11.

A series of community-led