Pages of the Sea

Pages of the Seawas a public art project curated by Oscar‑winning filmmaker Danny Boyle for 14‑18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary which saw dozens of vast sand portraits of individuals from the war etched into beaches in the UK and Ireland. In Wales, portraits were created on Colwyn Bay, Ynyslas in Ceredigion, Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, and Swansea Bay. Members of the public were also able to use stencil templates provided to create portraits of nurses, soldiers and munitions workers.

People gathered on the beaches to symbolically give thanks and bid farewell to the millions of men and women who either left the shores never to return or who were killed or injured in Britain itself. The portraits in Wales were: Private Ellis Humphrey Evans (Hedd Wyn) – killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele on July 31st 1917. Richard Davies, from Borth – a Royal Naval Reserve on the civilian ship the HMT Evangel which was acquired for military use and sunk off Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, struck by a mine laid by a German U-boat in 1917. Dorothy Mary Watson, Swansea – Dorothy worked in a munitions factory in Llanelli where she was killed by an explosion aged only 17 in 1917. Major Charles Alan Smith Morris, from Bridgend and Porthcawl – missing and presumed dead following a battle on the Western Front in 1917; he was later discovered to have been found by the German Army, though he was to die later of a fever. Find out more: www.pagesofthesea.org.uk

Left: Danny Boyle’s Pages of the Sea, part of 14-18 NOW, Colwyn Bay © Andy Sayle