Camera with family snaps found on Climping beach

Robin Mayhew was walking along Climping beach with his dog Mabel when he came across the camera lying in a rock pool.

The 72-year-old said: “We were walking Mabel along the beach on October 3, at 10am.

“It was low tide and we were towards Littlehampton.

“I noticed something that Mabel was looking at in a rock pool.

“I reached down and found it to be a camera in its case.

“It had obviously been in the water for some time.”

The Barnham-based composer and producer who was responsible for the Refuse to Lose Olympic song project which got around 20,000 school children singing and dancing took the camera home to see if he could trace the owner.

But he said because of the poor state of the camera he said he was not holding out much hope of being able to retrieve any images.

“I took it home and my son Ben happened to be there.

“He managed to winkle out the memory chip and after a bit of wiping and gentle scratching we managed to insert it into his camera and there were the pictures,” said Robin.

Like his father, Ben Mayhew, 43, who lives in Billingshurst, hopes publishing some of the pictures will lead to the camera’s owner coming forward.

Robin said: “It is amazing that the pictures are retained on the chip thanks to our digital age.

“Had this happened years ago all would be lost forever.”

The camera is a black Lumix Panasonic and has a model number of DMC-FZ28.

One of the pictures shows two young girls standing together smiling.

The younger girl is wearing a pink London 2012 t-shirt .

She also has a union jack headband with a bow on it in her hair.

The older girl is wearing a grey striped top and a light blue denim waistcoat.

They look like they are standing in front of an industrial building while the shot is being taken.

Another picture is a close-up head-shot picture of a male aged around 50 with short shaven hair.