Blackpool marks Remembrance Sunday with poignant sand portraits

On a windswept Blackpool beach, the portrait of just one of the hundreds of thousands of men who left to fight in the First World War and never returned home emerged from the sand.

Working from the early hours at low tide, artists and local volunteers used stencils and rakes to depict the face of young Lance Corporal John Edward Arkwright in the sand.

The project to mark the centenary of Armistice Day was inspired by film maker Danny Boyle as a nationwide gesture of remembrance.

On beaches from Cornwall to the Shetland Isles, portraits of the fallen were sculpted in the sand to say thank you for their sacrifice, before a collective goodbye as the sea comes in and washes their images away.

Members of the public also gathered to help fill the beach with portraits of other fallen soldiers.

A single white rose was placed on the sand portrait of L/Cpl Arkwright, born in 1890 during Queen Victoria's reign, just down the road from Blackpool in Lancaster - just one of the thousands of patriotic volunteers eager to serve his country.

He landed in France with the 1st Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on August 23, 1914,

Three days later he was dead, killed in action during the battle of Le Cateau.

The former police officer with the Lancashire Constabulary was aged 23 and left a wife, Isabella.

Abigail Wrigley, with her nine-year-old daughter, Caroline brought faded family photos to the beach to remember her own relatives who died serving the country.

Abigail, from Bolton-le-Sand, held pictures of her great grandfather William John McLean who died at sea in 1940 during the Second World War.

“There are a few of our family that have been in the services and this is what we are bringing today to think of them,” she says.

“They felt they had to serve their country and it meant that we have all the opportunities and liberties we do have today.

“It's really poignant. These are the people who didn't come home. These are the people whose lives stopped and they are the reason why we are where we are.

“It's sad, they are not with us but we are very, very grateful that they did what they did and I feel like it's a matter of honour to respect them.''

Above the sand portraits on the promenade, a service of remembrance was held at Blackpool War Memorial as the country fell silent at 11am.

While in Preston, the Minster was one of 1,000 places around the world to host a solitary piper who played the Battle's O’er