August summary: the solar eclipse and a remarkable Cornish museum

August opened up with two more heatwaves, leading to drought conditions over most of England, including Cornwall. 

A parched Falmouth

The beaches have been packed, no more so than on the 12th of the month. August 7th-16th was  Falmouth Week, which  grew out of a sailing regatta whose roots go back to 1837. Today it's a Cornish mixture of sailing, harbour activity, live music, family events, parades and spectacular displays, bringing the town alive.

The 12th was particularly special as the Wednesday is usually dominated by an evening display by the RAF's Red Arrows, but this year there was another, more low-key evening air display and by an extraordinary coincidence the air display coincided with a 95% partial solar eclipse, the most significant solar eclipse visible from Cornwall since the total eclipse of 1999.

The aerial performances took place in the evening, from around 6pm, with the eclipsing Sun creating the backdrop as an eerie twilight descended.

Falmouth's Gyllyngvase beach at 6pm

95% totality just after 7pm

Although this was a rare occurrence I have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed. Maybe I still have in my mind exactly 27 years previously when Falmouth was on the line of totality. Although the weather was awful and the eclipsed sun was not visible I will always remember the slightly frightening sight of the black shadow racing across Falmouth Bay towards us and pitching us into total darkness as it passed.

August 11th 1999: 11am and a few minutes later

On the day after the eclipse many homes were destroyed and wildfires raged in parts of Britain as one of the highest temperatures of the year was recorded.

This summer is one of the hottest on record in the UK and much of Europe is on fire. The overwhelming consensus of the global scientific community is that human activity is the primary driver of current climate change (see posting of 24 August), so is 2026 the coolest year we will experience? It is an uncomfortable question, but perhaps one worth asking. The World Meteorological Organisation estimates an 86% chance that at least one year between 2026 and 2030 will be warmer than the current record year, 2024. It also puts the chance of at least one year temporarily exceeding 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average during that period at 91%. These are probabilities, not predictions that every year will be hotter than the last, since natural variations such as El Niño and La Niña will continue to cause fluctuations. But the underlying trend is clear: the baseline on which those fluctuations occur is getting warmer.

There is also a darker reminder of what a warming world can mean beyond heatwaves and wildfires. Last week, catastrophic flash floods struck Nepal after a section of glacier collapsed in the Himalayas, sending an avalanche of ice, rock and water downstream. Hundreds of people have died and thousands remain missing, with homes, roads, bridges and other infrastructure destroyed. Scientists caution that it is too early to attribute this particular event directly to climate change, but the disaster occurred in a region experiencing rapid warming and accelerating glacier loss. As glaciers retreat and high-mountain environments become increasingly unstable, the risks of landslides, avalanches and sudden floods are growing.

The Nepal disaster is a reminder that climate change is not simply a story of temperatures rising year after year. It is about a changing climate system, in which familiar patterns and natural hazards can become more dangerous. Heatwaves, wildfires, extreme rainfall, floods and the destabilisation of glaciers may look like separate events, but they are all part of a world in which the environmental baseline is shifting.

On a lighter note, last Wednesday Barbara and I celebrated our 59th wedding anniversary by visiting a remarkable museum in St. Ive (not to be confused with St. Ives), near Liskeard, 55 miles from Falmouth. The Story of Emily steps into the life and legacy of Emily Hobhouse, the famous humanitarian who was born in St. Ive, and lived from 1860 to 1926. She became internationally known for speaking out against the treatment of Boer women and children during the Second Boer War.

The British Army used a "scorched earth" policy, destroying farms and moving Boer civilians into concentration camps. Emily travelled to South Africa in 1900 to see the situation for herself. In January 1901 she visited the Bloemfontein camp, where around 2,000 women and children were being held. She was horrified by what she found. Women and children were living in terrible conditions, with inadequate food, sanitation and shelter. She documented what she saw and brought the situation to the attention of the British public and politicians. Branded an hysterical woman and traitor by many, she refused to be silenced, saving thousands of Boer women and children, leading social reforms, and single-handedly challenging an empire at war.

I remember visiting Bloemfontein in 1982. It was the capital of the old Orange Free State, one of the two Boer republics that fought Britain. The concentration camp there became one of the most important symbols of the suffering of Boer civilians and the memory was still very much alive, with some turning away as I asked for directions in English. 

Bloemfontein has the Anglo-Boer War Museum and the National Women's Memorial (left), which commemorates the women and children who died in the camps. The museum specifically tells the story of the concentration camps and the suffering of civilians, and although speaking English can cause some resentment in this predominantly Afrikaans city, ironically Emily became enormously respected among Afrikaners because she had stood up for Boer women and children and the Bloemfontein War Museum presents her positively, describing how her visit exposed the conditions in the camps and helped bring about improvements. 

She was invited to unveil the Women's Memorial in 1913, but she was too ill to attend. The wife of President Steyn unveiled it on her behalf, reading her prepared speech at the ceremony. 

Emily died in 1926. Her funeral in London was remarkably small and received little attention. A few months later, however, South Africa gave her a very different farewell.

Her ashes were sent to South Africa, where Isabella "Tibbie" Steyn, the widow of former Orange Free State president Martinus Steyn and a close friend of Hobhouse, helped organise a state funeral in Bloemfontein, the first state funeral for a woman in South Africa. It took place on 27 October 1926 at the National Women's Monument attended by more than 20,000 people. Shops and businesses closed and flags were flown at half-mast and Emily's ashes were placed at the monument.

I'm sure that South African visitors to Cornwall, and anyone interested in South African history, would find the Story of Emily of great interest. The museum is deliberately divided into two very different experiences:

• The Victorian Rectory shows Emily's childhood and early life in rural Cornwall, with restored rooms and gardens recreating the world in which she grew up.
• The War Rooms provide a modern, dark, immersive exhibition about her experiences in South Africa and the concentration camps. It uses original objects, photography, film, animation, sound and virtual reality to put visitors into the historical setting.

The contrast is intentional: the peaceful Cornish home represents Emily's early life, while the stark War Rooms represent the traumatic world she encountered later. One particularly striking feature is that the War Rooms are kept around 26°C, helping recreate the heat of South Africa. The exhibition takes visitors through different environments and uses sound, mirrors and visual effects to convey the scale and human impact of the camps.

Inside the rectory, Emily's Cornish family home

Visiting a "virtual" Boer farmhouse stoep

A devastated farmhouse during Kitchener's scorched earth policy

As well as being overshadowed by the ongoing wars in Iran and Ukraine, August will also be remembered for the loss of two iconic singer-songwriters, Bonnie Tyler and Dolly Parton, whose distinctive voices, unforgettable songs and remarkable careers left an enduring mark on popular music. Their deaths brought an end to two extraordinary chapters in music history on both sides of the Atlantic.

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