One can only assume the date is correct. With the Bickford Smith Institute clearly in the background, it was definitely taken on Porthleven beach. The ‘Sear Cowls' title is helpful. The Sears' family were based in the Home Counties but in the early 20th century two of them married into the Cowls family in Porthelven, Cornwall. Edmund C Sear (1894) married Catherine (Kitty) Cowls (1889) and Frederic J Sear (1899) married Irene M Cowls (1900). Irene was in fact Catherine's niece and so after the marriages, Edmund became Frederic’s uncle as well as already being his brother! The ancestry tree below shows the relevant period of the Sear's family tree.
Other information can be garnered from the photograph. The fact that the woman and child are wearing exactly the same head-dress indicates to me that they are a mother and daughter – perhaps a questionable assumption! I would estimate that the girl is between 5 and 9 and the woman between 23 (to have a five year old child) and 35 and married as she is wearing a wedding ring.
I have got a pretty full ancestry tree for the Henry Cowls descendants of that period and there are only two pairs that work or nearly do, the best match of which was Elizabeth S Pascoe nee Cowls (1895-1983) and Jean Richards nee Pascoe (1921-2015) with Jean being perhaps a little old.
The Sear family have donated their photograph collection for this period to the Porthleven Museum with the comment that most were taken by Ernest O Sear (1892), one of the four brothers in the tree above. Looking at the photograph in context, the same faces appear regularly in the photographs and wedding photos give us some names for faces.
As it seems odd to repeatedly photograph slightly obscure relatives, Elizabeth and Jean, and using the other photographs, it is clear that in fact the images are not images from a resident of Porthleven but holiday snaps taken when Ernest was on holiday with his wife Emily L Sear nee Alder (1892) and daughter Marjorie J Sear (1923) visiting his brother Frederic and sister-in-law, Irene.. This combination meets all the criteria of above.
Edith M Sear nee Farmbrough (1867) in black as her husband Oliver had died early in 1927; Emily L Sear nee Alder (1892); Marjorie J Sear (1923); Michael O Sear (1929); Irene M Cowls (1900); Frederic J Sear (1899). Michael was born early in 1929 but looks too old for this1929 image so perhaps it was taken a year later? He appears in other images looking very similar and there is no better fit in the Sear family tree.
Sadly the descendants of Oliver Sear have now died out as far as I am aware. The marriage of Kitty and Edmund was over by 1928 but Kitty and her son Eric F Sear (1923) continued to live in Porthleven.
The last Porthleven connection was Michael O Sear (1929), son of Frederic and Irene who died in Porthleven in April 2015.
Frederic and Irene (my ‘Uncle Fred and Auntie Rene’ using the convention that anyone old and a relative was called Uncle and Aunt – Irene was in fact my 1st cousin twice removed!) left Porthleven after the war, lived in London for several years and ended thier years in Cheltenham where my parents had lived since they were married in 1956. Clealry the world of the Sears and Cowls was a small one!