Son leaving beach, perhaps, shepherding daughter in crowd (5)
I believe the answer is:
horde
'crowd' is the definition.
(horde is a kind of crowd)
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for horde that I've seen before include "A swarm or multitude" , "Vast crowd" , "Large army" , "Migratory tribe; army" , "Great crowd" .)