Many years ago you were on this very beach with a photographer who captured your likeness on the small rock that lies at my feet
This ancient rock is as sea worn as it was when you were here and the beach has not changed at all
Yet the world has changed beyond all recognition
It has lost what innocence it once had, although you would not guess it when standing here on this wide Cornish beach
Children still play on the expansive sands and the waves are as turbulent as they were in 1914
It is rather dull today and there are not many people here but on fine days it can become quite busy
I was here last summer and watched as many climbed on to your small rock
Each was totally oblivious of its past and few are likely to have heard of you
Or have been aware of your visit
To this very beach just over one hundred years ago
In the distance a busker is singing a rather soulful song
It starts:
Our freedoms seem to have faded
If they ever existed at all
Our lives are now so jaded
And my world seems so spent and small
The buskers song is now fading into gentle winds
These are the very same winds that caressed the beach
On the day of your last visit
The Olivier sisters were photographed on a beach in Cornwall during the summer of 1914
Margery, Brynhild, Noel and Daphne Olivier bathing in Cornwall in 1914
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0livier_sisters_Cornwall_1914.jpg
See page for author [Public domain]
Stuart Miller-Osborne
