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Clip description
This is mute unedited black-and-white footage showing members of the beach party retracing their steps soon after losing sight of Mr Holt.
Curator’s notes
Footage in this clip begins with Alan Stewart retracing his steps. He’s joined by Marjorie Gillespie and the two make their way to a rock outcrop on the beach. In his statement to the police, Alan Stewart said, 'I left the water past Mrs Gillespie and went in the direction of a large rock in the middle of the beach to use it as a point of vantage … Mrs Gillespie joined me on the beach near the rock and together we could not see Mr Holt’.
Personnel involved in the police investigation can be seen in the frame: inspectors, various detectives, a police photographer and groups of people in the background, combing the rocks for any washed-up evidence. Alan Stewart and Marjorie Gillespie are then joined by Vyner Gillespie (Marjorie Gillespie’s daughter) and Martin Simpson who, on the day, had been for a walk along the beach. In her statement to the police, Vyner Gillespie said, 'I joined my mother who was standing on a lower rock than Alan and I saw that she was terribly distressed and I think she said something like, “He is gone, we can’t see him”’.
