TWO brothers will retrace their family’s Cornish roots as they carry their father’s ashes to his final resting place near Porthcurno.

Oli and Giles Maunsell will walk 81km from Lizard Point to St Levan church, where the ashes of their father Eyre will be buried alongside those of his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

The pair will set off on the morning of Friday, September 11 and will walk for two-and-a-half days along the South West Coast Path, with the aim of raising funds for the hospice that cared for Eyre during the final five weeks of his life.

Eyre died peacefully on December 18, 2025, aged 76, following a battle with prostate cancer. He spent his last days at the inpatient unit of Weldmar Hospicecare in Dorchester, where his sons say the care he and their family received was truly exceptional.

Oli and Giles calculated that the cost to the charity of their father’s end-of-life care was approximately £16,800, and decided to make that their fundraising target.

“Dad was looked after impeccably at Weldmar,” said Oli. “He was comfortable and pain-free, and the care and kindness shown not only to him but to all of us was extraordinary. He had a room with a proper guest bed and enormous TV, delicious meals cooked to order, and even a visit from two ‘Christmas donkeys’ to his bedside.

“We want to give someone else the chance to be cared for in the same way at such an important and precious stage of life.”

Cornwall was hugely important to Eyre. After a 25-year career as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment, he retired to St Mabyn, near Wadebridge, and lived there for almost 20 years before relocating to Dorset.

His attachment to Cornwall, and specifically Porthcurno, went back generations. Eyre’s grandfather, Roland Edward Sylvester Maunsell, was born in the village in 1879 and joined the Eastern Telegraph Company at its Porthcurno station - known throughout the network by its code “PK” - as a 16-year-old probationer in September 1895, spending many years travelling the world.

Eyre’s father, Robert Eyre Maunsell, performed in the Minack Theatre’s first ever production in 1932 as a drunken sailor in the Tempest. To this day, the steep road climbing from Porthcurno to the Minack is known locally as Maunsell’s Hill; at its summit once stood Moorlands, the Maunsell family home.

“There is something incredibly special about bringing Dad back here,” said Oli. “He always felt a very strong connection to Cornwall throughout his life.

“To carry him along the Cornish coast, make that final climb up Maunsell’s Hill and then take him to St Levan to be laid to rest with the generations that came before him feels like the right way to bring him home.”

But carrying Dad home might not be an easy task. “Dad was a big lad,” said Oli, “so carrying him for 81km along the Cornish coast may prove to be a slightly more substantial undertaking than we realised.”

To make a donation, visit the JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/page/eyremaunsell.