TV Reporting from St Mary's
We have now “done” St Mary’s so today we repeated a walk we did last week but in the other direction starting in the little churchyard where Harold Wilson is buried. Most gravestones just record the persons name, date of birth and death and perhaps the husband, wife or children’s names. These are not very interesting.
At least Harold Wilson’s grave records what he did for a job. The more interesting graves told why the person died or a little more about them which allows you to look them up on the internet, a few examples below;
John Peason aged 15 from Ipswich had been ill on the ship for two months before dying in 1858.
The gravestone was paid for by the ships captain.
Died by the "upsetting of a lifeboat" on 24th October 1870. The ship is not listed as being wrecked so perhaps it was a freak accident
This was a local who was plundering the wreck of the SS Plymton when the tide lifted it of the rocks and it turned over. The crew had already been rescued.
John Gibson "Pioneer Photographer" who died in 1920.
We have found lots of his photographs of shipwrecks on the internet.
We then headed into the town and discovered a lot of sightseers and the press because the local landowner was in town so his tenants could doff their caps and he could check on the rents.
The banner picture shows a TV presenter doing his bit to camera.
Most of the Scillies are owned by the Duchy of Cornwall so Charles visits each year to make sure the peasants are not revolting, this year he brought the missus as it was a nice sunny day.
In fairness they were both good at chatting to all the well wishers, it must be incredibly boring making small talk with hundreds of people without having the chance to have a proper discussion. They then went off to Bryher on a boat which did a detour so they could meet a proper VIP – Wally the walrus who was resting on his pontoon.
Tomorrow is our last full day, we will probably head off to another island in search of yet another a nice lunch in the sunshine.