Ioan Gruffudd Coming Home

Coming home to Wales is international movie star Ioan Gruffudd,

back home on these shores to discover the extraordinary story

of his Welsh ancestry.

On this journey,

Ioan is moved to learn of the service and sacrifice made

by his family in World War II.

Well, we're so lucky, aren't we?

So lucky.

Whilst a trip back to school brings out his mischievous side.

I used to come running round here.

So that was a sure way of getting yourself into trouble with

the teachers here at Glantaf.

And he discovers how these ancient tombs hold the secret

to his family's royal ancestry.

That's... That's extraordinary.

As Ioan Gruffudd is coming home.

Making his mark at the age of 24 on the hit TV series Hornblower

as its swashbuckling title star,

Ioan was destined for fame, the red carpet and Hollywood.

He's played opposite Keira Knightley and Clive Owen in King Arthur,

as the iconic Marvel comic book hero Mr Fantastic,

and worked alongside the world's biggest movie stars.

And today,

Ioan has made Hollywood his home.

But even here, living in the heart of Los Angeles,

it's clear he's lost none of the passion for his homeland of Wales.

Yeah! Get in there! Come on!

History in the making! Come on!

What heart! What heart!

Now at home with his family in the United States,

Ioan is particularly keen to trace his Welsh ancestry,

so he can share the story with his two daughters, Ella and Elsie.

Da iawn ti, Elsie!

Da iawn!

Wnest ti'n dda!

Ioan's journey begins in Hollywood, captured on film by his wife, Alice.

How do you feel?

You know what, I, er...

I'm probably more nervous about this trip than I ever have been about

getting on a plane, going to do a big film or going to do a TV show

or standing on stage.

Erm, I don't know why.

I think it's...

I suppose, in a week's time, when I come back to LA,

I will probably have learned so much more about

my own family and my own past

and it'll probably shed some light on the fact that, you know,

maybe our daughters' genes do come from my side of the family

when they're being naughty and terrible!

Which is what I've always been saying!

But, er, I don't know.

You know what's amazing, you know, we're both actors,

we're both storytellers.

I just can't wait to hear the stories, you know, the adventures,

the good and the bad and I suppose,

I have to be prepared for the ugly and sort of the sad as well, so,

erm... Yeah, very nervous, trepidatious,

but ultimately, quite excited.

Very exciting.

OK, give us a kiss!

Mwah!

Bye, baby! Have fun.

Not too much fun, though!

So Ioan sets off from Los Angeles on his long journey back home to Wales.

Meanwhile back in Cardiff,

there are two people in particular keenly awaiting Ioan's arrival.

At the Gruffudd family home,

parents Peter and Gill have been eagerly anticipating his homecoming.

And they couldn't be more proud of their little boy.

We have supported him and his brother and sister

-whatever they wanted to do, really.

-Yeah.

And it's just, erm, great that he has...

-Had work, to be honest with you.

-Well, yes, exactly, because...

At the end of the day, it's work, isn't it, you know!

He went into it knowing that he could be out of work

more than he was in work because, I mean, he'd had experience with

working with professional actors, so, erm...

But it was a case of that's what he wanted to do and we said, well, yes,

if that's what you want to do, then you must try it now.

-Go for it, go for it, yeah.

-And see what happens.

-Yeah.

And yes, he's done well and we're obviously very proud.

Yes.

It's quite, emotional.

Oh, yes.

Ioan's parents live in the village of Pentyrch, just outside Cardiff.

And, after a long flight, Ioan is finally back in Wales

and home to his mum and dad's.

-Hello?

-Hello!

-Hello.

Sut wyt it ers sbel fawr?

Ioan has travelled over 6,000 miles to enjoy this hug from his parents.

But now, it's time to get started on the family story.

And of course, any research into your tree

must begin with the family album.

Well, so this is me as a young baby.

How many weeks old is this?

Oh, maybe six...

It's baby Ioan on his grandmother's shawl.

This is a shawl that Mam-gu, your mam-gu made.

My mam-gu made?

Yes, my mother. My mother made that. She made a lot of...

And a talent that has been passed down through the generations.

Oh, yeah, your Mam, yes.

So how much do you know about your grandparents and your ancestors?

On my side, on my father's side, I don't know them at all,

because they both passed away well before I was born.

I mean, how do you feel about finding out, you know,

more specifically...

Oh, I'd love to, to be honest, because especially my father's side,

I didn't know any of them, you know.

Of my grandparents on my father's side.

That would be really an eye-opener for me.

I'm looking forward to that, yeah.

I'm looking forward as well. I think it's very exciting.

It is, it is, it is!

There might be some skeletons in the cupboard!

Whatever comes, whatever comes. You never know, do you?

Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So now, the ancestral story can begin.

Joining Ioan at his parents home is genealogist Mike Churchill Jones,

who's been busy piecing together the family tree and is about to reveal

the extent of this hard work -

the biggest tree Mike has ever produced.

Ioan - croeso - welcome to your tree reading.

-Thank you.

-There's a lot of it.

-Want to give me a hand unrolling it?

-Absolutely.

OK.

-You're going to have to take it to the end, I'm afraid.

-Am I really?

Well, well, well.

Goodness me, Mike.

It looks like the accumulation of...

How many years?

-Wow!

-And again.

Look at that!

Well, well, well.

What do you think?

That's very impressive.

The first thing that comes to mind is, "Oh, my goodness,

"how hard have you been working to do this?"

This is beautiful.

-It's been enjoyable.

-Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad.

Straight away, the tree reveals Ioan has deep Welsh ancestry on both his

mother and his father's side.

Ancestry that can be traced back all the way to the late 1500s

to west Wales and the town of Kidwelly.

But there's one person on the tree,

Ioan's seven times great-grandfather Walter Anthony,

who's proving difficult to track down.

This man is a bit of a mystery man.

Right.

In terms of where he came from, who he is, his...?

Basically, who he is, who he married and when he died.

At this moment in time, I've no idea.

-So there's no...?

-I can't answer those questions.

You can't answer those questions as a genealogist,

even though there are records of other people during that time?

-Plenty of people have tried to research this man...

-Right.

..and he's been pretty elusive.

I've played, sort of, Sherlockian sort of characters on television,

-so I'm...

-This might come in handy, then.

I'm very, very keen to try and put or piece all this together.

So the tree reveals that some of Ioan's earliest recorded ancestors

lived in Kidwelly in south-west Wales.

So, that's where he travels first.

Here, the story begins with Ioan's

ten times great-grandfather, David Mansell, born in 1590.

Kidwelly's famous castle would have been a familiar sight to David

and his wife Mary and it's here

where Ioan meets with historian Chris Delaney.

Come inside the castle.

Chris has been digging deep into the archive to unearth this story and

straight away wants to take Ioan to the very top of the castle.

Way up here in the ancient turrets,

he'll discover that his family's ancestry can be directly linked

to the castle's history and that, in fact,

he's walking in the very footsteps of his forebears,

who were a very important family here in Kidwelly

in its earliest days.

For the first time, Ioan has the chance to view the land that

they surveyed more than 400 years ago.

So, tell me, this vista now, from this vantage point,

from this height on Castell Cydweli,

how different may it have looked,

compared to what we're seeing here today?

Well, obviously, lots of changes,

but one of the reasons why I brought your up here is because

the key elements in the landscape haven't changed since the time

that your ancestors were here.

So, obviously, we've got this wonderful, magnificent castle that

we're standing on top of, we've got the church of St Mary,

-the priory church of St Mary, over there.

-Mm-hm.

Out there, you can see the river, the Gwendraeth Fach,

coming in from the sea,

which is critical to the development and supply of the castle,

to the development of the town.

And down there, is the town we can see and, in the distance,

you can see the town gate.

So how does Chris know Ioan's ancestors lived in this area

such a long time ago?

He takes Ioan to the nearby Kidwelly Industrial Museum

to reveal the story.

In chairs once occupied by former mayors of Kidwelly,

Chris can reveal that Ioan's ancestors were also very important people.

Your family were powerful, very significant, very, very influential

people in this area for a period of time in the 17th and 18th centuries.

So, we're going to kind of explore that a little bit

and where I'm going to start is with this document,

which is a copy document of the 1619 charter.

This is a charter that was given by the Duchy of Lancaster and

King James to them.

So, it's carrying a royal seal, a seal of approval,

so if anybody messes with you, you've got the Crown on your side.

Well, this is, as I said, is the 1619 charter,

and I'd like you to read out a little bit about it, starting here,

because it is a very significant document for you personally.

The original of this charter document was issued over

400 years ago in the areas around Kidwelly Castle.

The charter identified the so-called burgesses, important people with

rights to collect rents on land and to trade and even tax the people.

Ioan is looking for the name of his ten times great-grandfather, David Mansell.

We have also assigned, nominated, constituted and made and do,

by these present for us, our heirs and successors assign, nominated,

constitute and make our beloved Owen Bowen, John Dyer, David Dyer,

John Phillips, Maurice Fisher, David Mansell...

-David Mansell!

-That's your David Mansell.

That's your ten times great-grandfather,

who is appearing in a document of 1619.

That's incredible.

Yeah. And he's listed there, in this document, as a principal burgess.

I see here. First and now principal burgesses of the borough of Kidwelly.

Yeah. These are the people elevated from the burgesses,

they're elected by the burgesses to become, if you like,

senior or principal burgesses and it's like a first step on a

career ladder that can lead them to higher things within the town.

That's incredible.

That's incredible.

And there he is.

I feel, sort of, much more comfortable and relaxed in this

position of power!

Well, enjoy the seat for a few moments yet.

Yes, exactly! I shall indeed, yes, yes.

We'll call this meeting to a meeting adjourned, yes, indeed.

Excellent.

Before today, Ioan knew nothing of his family connection to Kidwelly

or of just how important his Mansell family were here in this area.

Something he can reflect on, as he surveys the place that was once

subject to taxation by his own prestigious ancestors.

But as Ioan will learn,

this is by no means the end of his Mansell family saga.

Now the story in Kidwelly moves forward three generations to Ioan's

seven times great-grandfather, one Walter Anthony.

Apart from his name, little is known of Walter.

There's no birth record or other official records to explain

where he came from, but Ioan has discovered,

from the Carmarthen archive, that there is someone connected

to the family living in Kidwelly today, who's been researching this mystery for over 40 years.

Come in, come in. Dewch mewn.

Her name is Iris Davis, and Ioan is delighted to be meeting up

with his long lost relative at her home.

Well, regarding Walter Anthony,

I don't know from where he was, unless he came down from the sky!

He could've happened that way.

-Yes.

-Because I've searched and searched and I've failed,

so I'm up to a dead-end here. Against the wall.

You've come to a dead-end.

I heard that he was such a mystery that we were fearing as much

-that we might have come to a bit of a dead-end....

-Yes, yes.

..but I'm sure you, with your knowledge and your expertise,

have some theories, perhaps, maybe?

One piece of evidence Iris has managed to track down

is the actual marriage bond of Walter Anthony to an Elizabeth Beynon in 1730.

-He married in Aberystwyth.

-Mm-hm.

And the funny part about it,

just Walter Anthony, and then marries Elizabeth Beynon,

10th of July, 1730.

No denominations.

No parents' name, no home name, nothing.

That's what I say - why?

He must have come down from somewhere!

-He just appeared.

-Yes, appeared.

In the history books, as it were.

-Yes.

-But they...

But his name is on this ledger.

Oh, yes, definitely.

-But just his name, and her name...

-Yes.

-..Elizabeth Beynon's name.

-Yes.

But nothing more, you said?

No. No denominations.

-Well, well, well.

-No home name.

No father, parents, nothing.

So, we can only speculate, is what we're saying?

Let me just get this straight in my...

So, Elizabeth...

-Beynon.

-Beynon.

-And she married a Walter Anthony.

She married a Walter Anthony, but him, we don't know...

No.

-He just appears from nowhere.

-Yes, yes.

Now Ioan has learned that his seven times great-grandmother was called

Elizabeth Beynon,

and so wants to find out more about this marriage to try and help solve

the mystery for himself and Iris.

It would be wonderful if we could continue on our journey

and see if we can help to put her out of her misery,

her sort of 40-year long misery, it seems to me!

And also, shed some light on this mysterious character,

Walter Anthony, who in her words,

seems to have appeared out of thin air or fallen from the sky!

Ioan hopes to learn more of this story later, but, for now,

he's moving forward in time several generations.

He's particularly keen to learn more of the life of his grandmother,

known as Eiry, born in 1917.

Eiry trained as a nurse,

and in World War II, worked through the London Blitz,

which began on September 7th, 1940,

when the capital was bombed for 58 consecutive nights.

As a surgical nurse, Eiry witnessed first-hand

the horrific injuries of soldiers returning from the front.

To learn more of her role at that time, there's only one expert

that Ioan should meet -

and that's Eiry herself.

Now aged 99, she is at her favourite cafe in her hometown of Pontyberem,

accompanied by Ioan's dad, Peter.

You must have, in your capacity during the war as a nurse,

you must have come across several

injured and wounded soldiers, yes?

Oh, some. Oh, they were poor.

Some had to go to other hospitals for operations and things like that.

Yeah.

And then you were sort of in the wards?

I was working in the theatre.

No!

At the time when the operations were going, some of them.

Not all of them, some of them.

Working in the East End of London,

Eiry was far from safe from bombing raids.

One side of the ward, windows come in, all of them.

This side was safe.

That was strange, you know.

-So, from a...?

-With the impact or the something of the...

-Of the bomb.

-Of the bomb, yeah.

-And you'd take them, then, away from there, didn't you?

-Yeah.

Take them downstairs.

My word, we were afraid.

But, in the end, we'd just carry on as if nothing had happened.

You got used to it and you had to, in a way, you know.

You had to.

To have your perspective on that particular part of history

that has affected so many people across the UK,

and so many people here in Carmarthenshire,

and affected us directly

and that you were, physically, part of it...

So, we have all these incredible images from war footage,

or history footage, but now I'm hearing first-hand somebody who was

there and I'm directly related and she's sat here next to me.

Ioan and his family are rightly proud of his grandmother, Eiry.

And she was not the only member of the family to serve with such

distinction in World War II.

To learn of this next story,

Ioan has travelled to Tenby, on the trail of his paternal cousin,

David Leslie Griffiths, who was known as Leslie.

A general labourer before World War II, by June 1944,

33-year-old Leslie was about to step onto the beaches of Normandy,

as part of Operation D-Day -

the Allied effort to free mainland Europe from Nazi occupation.

An operation practised for here, in Tenby,

as historian Dr Jonathan Hicks explains.

And this beach, North Beach in Tenby,

was used in the spring of 1944, by the American 28th Division,

-to practise for their landings on the famous Omaha Beach.

-Ah.

So, the exercises took part here,

on this very beach?

Because the topography of the land is very similar to Omaha Beach.

Well, well, well.

So, it's almost identical to the topography that they would have

come across in Normandy, at Omaha Beach.

-So, this is where they did their exercises and their drills...

-Yes.

..in preparation for that historic day.

This image shows American troops scaling the rocky Tenby cliffs,

in preparation for D-Day.

After years of planning,

the D-Day landings were scheduled for early June, 1944,

but poor weather and rough seas made the invasion impossible.

Over 100,000 troops were forced to spend days at sea.

Amongst their number was a member of Ioan Grufudd's family -

one Leslie Griffiths -

just waiting for the green light to land.

The night before the invasion, Eisenhower issued every man,

including Leslie Griffiths, with a copy of that.

"You're about to embark on a great crusade,

"toward which we have striven these many months.

"The eyes of the world are upon you.

"The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere

"march with you." Oh.

"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill

"in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory."

Each man would have been issued this from Dwight Eisenhower.

Received one of those. What isn't known, generally,

is that Eisenhower wrote two dispatches,

-to be issued to the press the following morning.

-Mm-hm.

One - the invasion has been a success, casualties are light,

the Germans are on the retreat. The second one -

the invasion has been a failure.

I'd like to apologise for the heavy casualties we suffered

and he was going to tender his resignation.

-Thankfully, as we know...

-Yes.

-..it was the former that was used, not the latter.

-Wow. Wow.

-So, this was, really, a, sort of, do-or-die mission.

-Yes.

-There was no second chance.

-No, this was it. Yeah.

Incredible. Incredible.

On June 6th, 1944, Leslie Griffiths,

along with 156,000 other troops,

stormed the beaches of Normandy.

His battalion landed on Sword Beach, with over 28,000 other soldiers,

and support from over 6,000 ships and 11,000 planes.

Thousands of men perished on the beaches.

But Leslie was when of the lucky ones, who made it inland.

And we know exactly where he was.

-He was with F Troop, there - position 324.

-Well, well.

So, you can even see the field that he was in, on Sword Beach.

Leslie's role was arming an anti-aircraft gun,

to provide protection for Allied troops trying to get inland from the beach.

His battalion suffered severe casualties,

with many of their heavy weapons destroyed by the German onslaught.

What happened next has been recorded in the regimental diary.

-I have here a copy of the war diary for the regiment.

-Yeah.

And I would like you to read what happened at eight o'clock

on the morning of the 13th.

So, the 13th of June...

8.00am.

"Regiment fired...2,300 rounds -

"100 rounds per gun against ground targets,

"with 4 Army Group, Royal Artillery.

"Three of the ranks wounded by a premature at F Troop."

So, what had happened was that the barrel became so hot,

because they couldn't afford to break the firing,

to allow it to cool down, that when they put a round in to the barrel,

-it exploded inside the gun.

-Oh.

But the war diary doesn't tell the complete story, Ioan,

because the explosion was so catastrophic,

-it actually killed Leslie.

-No. No.

And more than that, it was such a large explosion,

-in such a confined space...

-Yeah.

-..that his body could not be identified.

-Hmm.

-Hmm.

-So, he has no known grave.

And his life was over at the age of 33.

But he is remembered with honour, because his name

is inscribed on the walls of the Bayeux Memorial To The Missing.

And his name will be there forever,

in commemoration of his sacrifice for his country.

We are so lucky, aren't we?

We are.

So lucky.

Yeah, we know nothing, do we, really?

When you think about...

..you know, how...

The freedoms that we have, you know. The fact that we went...

One has to volunteer to go out to war...

..and these young men and women, you know, never had a chance, you know.

Yeah, so we're really hearing these, sort of, personal stories,

even though, you know, it's a few generations ago.

It just goes to show that we've all come from that

-and we've all benefited from those sacrifices.

-Yes.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Amazing.

Ioan is clearly very moved by this story.

Leslie died over 70 years ago, but remarkably, there is someone

still living in Wales

who was there fighting on the same beaches as Leslie.

Private Bill Speak, now 92,

who Ioan will be meeting tomorrow, to learn more of his story.

The following morning, and Ioan is looking forward to his meeting with Bill.

But there's some very sad news.

Carol, Bill's daughter, rang us up early this morning,

to say, sadly, Bill had passed away last night in his sleep

and we were going to have a chance to interview him today.

Well, I was going to have the chance to interview him today,

face-to-face, and hear his stories about the landings on D-Day...

..to tie in with what I'd learnt on the beach in Tenby.

So...it's a very, sort of...

..sad bit of news,

of a young...

..or who would have been a very young soldier, at the time,

alongside my ancestor, David Leslie,

storming the beaches of Normandy.

Ioan may not have met Private Bill Speak in person,

but he can view, on his laptop,

an interview our research team did earlier in the year with Bill,

who clearly had forgotten none of the horrors of that day.

Soldiers were being bowled over, killed.

Dying.

Didn't have to stop, to help anybody.

You just had to go on...

..if you were in the same position.

You just had to carry on, if you could.

I think we were all very pleased, that evening, to see the sun set!

It's quite a poignant day today. A very sad day...

..on our journey, but at least we have Bill here

and Bill's stories preserved in time.

Ioan must now leave Tenby, to continue on his journey.

There's so much more for him to learn,

including how these ancient Welsh tombs

contain secrets of his family's past.

But first, Ioan's homecoming wouldn't be complete

without a trip to his former school, Glantaf, here in Cardiff.

Not only was Ioan a pupil here,

but his father was also the deputy headmaster.

Here we are.

Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf,

where I spent, well, seven years, I guess, from the age of 11 to 18.

But this little area in here is where...

..the school kids are now doing their examinations.

It's their GCSEs.

I remember doing my GCSEs and how intense that period was, you know,

studying for, well, what should've been weeks on end, but..!

Yeah.

I remember, I wasn't very good at maths,

so I had to get some extra help to pass my GCSE maths,

because if you didn't pass your maths,

you couldn't go on to do A-level. So, I scraped a B, in the end.

I was very proud of my B in maths in GCSE.

THEY SPEAK IN HUSHED WHISPERS

This gentleman here, I've just told them,

was the reason I passed my GCSE maths!

This gentleman helped me out, to get me over the line.

-He didn't need much help.

-No, no.

But we spent many an hour together, going over and over and over

all the angles and...

-..the formulas.

-Very difficult work it was, at the time!

And this hasn't changed at all, this corridor here.

It's all exactly the same.

Some of the staff there.

The headmaster's office is here.

Shwmai, Ioan!

-How are you?

-I'm good, thanks.

-Neis i weld ti.

-Great to see you.

This is Mr Ceri Evans. He taught me rugby.

He's always supported everything we've done in the PE Department

over the years. Always written brochures for us.

He's always been very, very supportive and we can always rely on him

-to give us a good word every time.

-Yeah.

-What a gentleman.

-What an excellent guy.

-Oh, thank you.

-Diolch, Ceri.

-Pleser. Neis i weld ti!

Even though his father was the deputy head,

Ioan wasn't always such a good boy.

I used to come running round here.

Did that...

Shooooom!

So that was a sure way of getting yourself into trouble

with the teachers here at Glantaf.

See, not bad, eh?

Still got the old skill of sliding down a banister!

As Mr Ceri Evans, our PE teacher would say, "Skill is forever"!

This corridor here is where I got thrown out of a Welsh class,

for being cheeky and boisterous, and I would stand...

You'd have to stand outside the classroom door,

with the shame and humiliation, but because my dad was

the deputy head here,

I would just walk up and down the corridor and,

if I did bump into him,

I'd have the excuse, "Oh, I'm just on an errand, for the teacher".

And Ioan's favourite music teacher still works here.

I can hear her voice.

KNOCKING

HE LAUGHS

Wel, croeso i'r adran gerdd!

It's a definite warm welcome for one of the music department's

former star pupils.

Well, if you call it... Is it too much? Too loud?

No, it was very beautiful.

Yeah, I remember you, Ioan, as a brilliant oboist.

-And I remember your Prac A-Level.

-That's right, yes.

-Albinoni, Concerto No. 9.

-Yes, Albinoni's Oboe Concerto. Yes.

-I remember that.

-Thank you. Wow, wow. That's great.

-He was pretty good.

-I must have done a good impression, then.

-Yes!

-Made a good impression, yeah.

-The school orchestra was accompanying

you and you had full marks, as well. I remember.

And before Ioan leaves,

there's just enough time to say goodbye to new friends,

as well as old.

-Hyfryd iawn.

-Wy'n credu bod llun tebyg gyda dy dad.

And even to tell a few stories about young, mischievous Ioan.

We'd get, sort of, cress, and we'd pour cress seeds down the sink,

so as the term progressed, you know, the cress would grow.

And with one last goodbye, it's time for Ioan to complete

the final leg of his journey.

Now, for the next chapter in his family tree,

Ioan is back in Carmarthenshire

and the small former coal-mining village of Pontyberem.

Joined by his father Peter, they are visiting Caersalem Church,

on the trail of Ioan's paternal great-great uncle,

Rhys Griffiths,

who worshipped here in the period before World War I.

On the outbreak of the Great War,

there was no compulsory military service.

But in 1916, all single men, aged 18 to 41, were conscripted.

But Rhys's strong religious beliefs led him to becoming what was known

as a conscientious objector - those refusing to bear arms.

There were around 16,000 known objectors in the UK,

with religion being the primary reason.

Although Rhys strongly believed "thou shalt not kill",

he did make a contribution to the war effort,

by joining the Royal Medical Corps,

as historian Jeremy Banning explains.

After his training,

he was sent over to France,

in January 1916...

..and went into a quiet sector of the line, at that time.

-I've got some images here to show you...

-Gosh.

..whereabouts they were.

An area between the villages of Neuve Chapelle and Festubert,

both of which had been assaulted in the spring of 1915.

So, the British had moved forward and the lines had then stabilised.

The trenches Rhys experienced in Artois were unusual,

because they were built up, rather than dug down.

This was due to the high water tables.

A mere two feet below the ground and digging would've released

hazardous water among the troops.

Rhys knew these trenches well.

Now, his role within the Royal Army Medical Corps,

he joined a unit called 106 Field Ambulance.

And they were there to look after particular men

of a certain division. And his role in that was to form, or their role,

was to form various points along a casualty-evacuation chain.

So, if a soldier was wounded in the front line here,

let's say by rifle fire, shot through the shoulder,

he would be there. They'd call, the call would go up,

"Stretcher bearers!" and the medics would rush in

and he would be there to, hopefully, put an iodine, pour iodine onto

the wound, a dressing on there, ideally a, sort of, tourniquet,

to stop the bleeding in some way,

wrap them up, and then get those men, the wounded man,

from down these trenches

and out through the casualty-evacuation chain.

So, you have stretcher bearers and an aid post a little bit

further back and, then, if that man was OK,

being taken back again and through a recognised

casualty-evacuation chain. So, he's integral to what is going on

at the front, but the critical thing is, he's not bearing arms, at all.

-He's rescuing men.

-Yeah.

-He's helping them.

Jeremy has the war diary from the battalion Rhys was looking after.

It records a major German bombardment on May 30th, 1916,

as Ioan can now read for himself.

"W Company held onto the trenches till, as far as can be ascertained,

"about 8:15pm, when all three officers doing duty with the company

"having been wounded, the company commander, Captain Ainsworth,

"who, at that time, had been twice wounded

"and who refused to be removed, gave orders for all men who could move,

"or be removed, to close on flanks and take up fresh positions."

Oh, gosh.

That's incredible.

Because of the artillery bombardment,

the British suffer a great deal of casualties, in this bombardment.

And one of them...

-..is Rhys.

-Rhys. Ah, well...

Quite emotional, yeah. Quite touching, really.

-I can see a bit of my father in him.

-Yes. Yes.

What a waste.

-Yes.

-Absolute waste.

-Yes.

Jeremy has discovered a letter to Rhys's father,

written by the battalion chaplain.

"Field Ambulance, France, June 1st, 1916.

"Dear Mr Griffiths, I have to break the sad news to you of the death of

"your son, Rhys, on the night of the 30th of May.

"In the bombardment of the trenches, there were many wounded

"and he and his friend, Dugdale, were together giving first aid

"and carrying the wounded back into safety.

"As I understood it,

"it was while Rhys and Dugdale were attending a wounded officer

"that a shell burst which killed Rhys, but left Dugdale unharmed,

"except for a severe shock.

"When he is well enough, he will be writing to tell you about it,

"but there is no doubt that Rhys showed great bravery

"and thought not of himself, in his noble devotion to duty.

"I knew him and loved him.

"He was known to be a splendid comrade and a true Christian."

-He certainly sounds a...

-A decent chap.

A pretty decent chap. Well thought of. I should say,

-he was only 23 years old when he was killed.

-Mm.

Rhys's body was buried in France,

but he is remembered on his father's grave in the Caersalem cemetery.

It's quite emotional, really.

In the futility of war, obviously, but also, he held his beliefs.

During the war, everybody knew what his beliefs were,

that he had thought of going to the ministry,

but he did go to the war, to save people's lives,

and although he was killed himself, he did carry out that.

He accomplished what he wanted to do, in a way.

And I'm sure that whole path of Flanders Fields are littered

with these sort of stories, you know,

-which probably affected every single family in the UK.

-Mm.

Now comes the most extraordinary story of all.

Is it possible that Ioan is descended from royal blood?

Earlier, he learnt of his ancestors, the Mansell family.

Their extensive wealth and power can be seen here,

at Margam Abbey, near Neath.

But can their ancestral line be traced even further back?

The story Ioan is about to learn begins in the 16th century,

when his ancestor, David Lloyd, married into the Mansell family.

Historian Gerald Morgan takes up the story from here.

He was a David Lloyd, but he took the name Mansell from his wife.

-That's unusual, isn't it?

-Not when money comes in.

-Oh, there's money involved?

-Yes.

-Right!

-Yes.

Men were willing to change their surnames,

if money came with the heiress or the well-endowed wife.

So, it's Ioan's ten times great-grandmother, Mary Mansell,

that has interested Gerald. But what of her ancestry?

We can trace, from Mary Mansell,

we can trace back through a number of interesting people,

which explains why we're in this great church.

We have here Sir Rhys Mansell, died 1559.

He, I regard as the real founder of the Margam Mansell family,

because he was a great servant to Henry VIII.

He fought in Ireland, on Henry's behalf.

His sons were a pretty turbulent bunch, on his behalf.

But he was quite a character,

and he was able to buy the Margam Abbey estate from Henry VIII

when the monasteries were dissolved.

In the early 1500s, the Pope was the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales,

but when the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine

of Aragon, Henry split from Rome and began selling off

the monasteries, for his own financial gain.

Margam Abbey was one of the richest abbeys in Wales

and was sold to Ioan's ancestor, Rhys Mansell.

In this church, the Abbey Church of Margam,

much restored, but still a very fine church,

has got a wonderful collection of family monuments,

the Mansell's monuments.

And we can go over and see them.

-Fantastic.

-And introduce you to some of these people who have contributed

a tiny, tiny percentage to your...

-Yes.

-..genome.

-Yes, yes. Indeed, indeed.

These extraordinary ancient monuments have been laying here

for centuries. Ioan's family have driven by this abbey many times

over the years, with no idea of the connection this place has to them.

This is the Mansell Memorial Chapel,

with the tombs of two generations of Mansells.

Sorry, you are saying this is their own chapel?

-Well...

-The Mansell's...

-Yes, yes.

-..chapel within...

-Within the church.

-Within the church.

-Yes.

We are very privileged to be able to go and look at them.

Normally, they are roped off,

because they have been damaged in the past, simply by carelessness,

and we have to be very careful not to break anything,

because we'd be liable for a large sum of money.

But, because I'm family, I'm allowed to go up there?

Provided you've inherited the family wealth!

-Well, shall we?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Here you have Sir Rice - or Rhys - Mansell,

the... really the doyen of the place.

The pater familias, the great ancestor.

This is Lady Jane Somerset, wife of Sir Edward Mansell,

the eldest son of Sir Rhys.

And she is a great lady, in her own right.

He was very fortunate to marry her,

because she comes from a major family.

She's the daughter of an Earl of Worcester

and she is our key to the next part of the story.

So, the mystery is slowly unravelling.

There is still one more surprise to reveal about Ioan's Mansell family.

But before that, there is one other story still waiting to be resolved.

Now, Ioan is returning to the mystery of his seven-times

great-grandparents, Elizabeth Beynon and Walter Anthony.

Earlier on his journey, he met with his relative Iris Davis,

who has spent the last 40 years

trying to discover who Walter Anthony really was,

as there are no official records of where he came from.

Ioan is now visiting the Glamorgan Archive, in Cardiff,

to meet up again with genealogist, Mike Churchill Jones.

Ioan has already learned that his seven-times great-grandmother,

Elizabeth Beynon married the mysterious Walter Anthony,

but it seems she originally intended to marry another man,

one Thomas Rhydderch.

Clearly, Elizabeth's father thought she would marry Thomas Rhydderch,

as he left them money in his will.

"I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth

"one-third of my goods and chattels,

"provided she marries Thomas William Rhydderch.

"If not, I name, constitute and appoint my daughters

"Elizabeth and Anne to be my joint executors to this,

"my last will and testament."

So, according to the terms of her father John Beynon's will,

if Elizabeth Beynon married Mr Rhydderch she would inherit

only one-third of his estate.

But if she chose to marry anyone else, she would get more money -

a full half-share of his will.

Thomas William Rhydderch...

..is the gentleman that she...

-..wants to marry, it seems to me.

-So it seems, yes.

So this name, Rhydderch, it doesn't make any sense to me,

because Iris told me that she married a Walter Anthony.

-So, I'm... Please enlighten me.

-This is how I see it.

-Right.

John Beynon is telling us that, if his daughter chooses to marry

-Thomas William Rhydderch...

-Right.

..she can inherit one-third of his estate.

-Right.

-But if she chooses to marry another,

she can share the estate with her sister.

So, rather than marry Mr Rhydderch and inherit only a third

of her father's estate, Elizabeth Beynon chose to marry

a Walter Anthony, instead.

On the 10th of July...

..1730.

And there it is, it's in Latin,

-but it's Walter Anthony and Elizabeth Beynon.

-Uh-huh.

And they paid seven shillings and four pence.

-Right.

-So, what this is telling me is that Mr Rhydderch

wants more money than he will get

if he chooses to marry Elizabeth Beynon.

Mike has been studying this case,

trying to work out why Elizabeth didn't marry Mr Rhydderch,

but instead, married Walter Anthony -

a man with no past and no family witnesses to his marriage.

It's impossible to know for certain, but Mike himself has come up with

an intriguing theory - that Mr Rhydderch and Walter Anthony

are, in fact, the same person,

and that Ioan's seven-times great-grandfather changed his name

from Mr Rhydderch to Walter Anthony, in order to inherit more money.

So, he's going to change his name to someone else

and persuade the probate that he is someone else.

That he is someone else.

-I suppose there's no...

-He has a marriage licence to prove it.

He's Walter Anthony. And he's paid seven shillings and four pence

-to prove it.

-He's already paid for the privilege.

So, because there's no ID, there's no background check or whatever...

Indeed. And before 1750...

-Yeah.

-..this marriage would not have been...

Had to be solemnised in the parish church, to become a legal marriage.

-Right.

-It was legal from the moment he paid that money.

So, he's now become Walter Anthony.

Your ancestor's not Walter Anthony, he's Thomas William Rhydderch.

He's Thomas William Rhydderch.

One thing that is coming to my mind now is, I'm feeling...

..sort of, duty-bound to tell Iris about this,

because I remember distinctly she said to me that she was

so frustrated that she's been spending 40 years of her life

trying to piece this together, about this mystery man,

this Walter Anthony. She said that he'd fallen from the sky

or from wherever he came, she didn't know.

So now, for the first time,

Iris can see the will left by Elizabeth Beynon's father

and consider, for herself, the conclusions Mike has drawn.

It seems to us,

didn't want Elizabeth to marry a one Thomas William Rhydderch.

-If she did, she'd get a third.

-A third, yes.

If she didn't, she'd get half.

So, our conclusion, it seems to us, is...

Which will solve the mystery of 40 years of your life,

it seems to us that Thomas William Rhydderch...

-Yes.

-..changed his name... to Walter...

-Anthony.

-..Anthony.

Well, that explains a lot of things.

-Yeah.

-Yes. A lot of things.

So, we've come to the conclusion

that Walter Anthony was there the entire time...

-Yes.

-..as Thomas William Rhydderch.

Good gracious.

That explains a lot of things now.

-Does it? Does it give you some sort of relief...

-Yes, yes!

..of all this work that you've put into this mystery?

No wonder I could never find him.

No. No, because he was hiding in plain sight.

Yes. Yes, he was.

-Yes, yeah.

-He was.

Well, well.

Earlier on his journey,

Ioan was able to trace his Welsh roots back to 1590

and his Mansell family.

But now for the final part of this story, he has one last,

extraordinary chapter to share.

One that takes him back over 700 years.

We're back in the time of royalty.

The family who had descended from Henry II were known as Plantagenets.

From Gerald's research,

he has shown how Ioan's direct ancestor, Sir Edward Mansell,

married Lady Jane Somerset and, through her,

has taken Ioan's direct line back through 300 years,

all the way to the Plantagenets.

And, if you look here,

you'll see that we've got an Earl of Lancaster, here.

Father of Eleanor. And he is the son of Edmund Plantagenet,

known as Crouchback, not because he had a round back,

but because he wore a cross on his back,

to show that he'd been on Crusade.

-Right.

-And he is a very significant figure.

He's the man who supervisors the building of Aberystwyth Castle.

And we find, of course,

that he is the son of Henry III.

No.

Yes.

-The King of England?

-The King of England.

-A major figure.

-Yes.

The man who made the Treaty of Montgomery,

with Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, the last Prince of Wales,

which gave Llywelyn the title, Prince of Wales,

as acknowledged by the English crown.

He was the first, and last, Welsh Prince of Wales,

-in any serious sense.

-Right.

-But the title derives from him...

..and was the gift of Henry III.

And further, when Alice FitzAlan married Ioan's ancestor,

Thomas Holland, Gerald's tree contains one last surprise,

showing Ioan can also claim his direct ancestry to Edmund's brother,

Edward I.

The man who conquers Wales.

No. Edward I?

Yeah. Now, I...

I hope that that raises a certain conflict in your mind.

Well, it does. So, here we have Henry III, the King of England,

-that had...

-That dies in 1272.

-Dies '72.

Who'd made the Treaty with...

-Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf.

-Who became...the Prince of Wales.

-The last, sort of, true Prince of Wales.

-That's right.

Who gave birth, then, to Edward...

-Yes.

-..the first, the king of England, who then was...

..the cause of...

Well, he's the man who finishes the conquest of Wales

and attempts the conquest of Scotland.

But that's a much tougher nut to crack even than Wales

-and it took them 200 years to conquer Wales.

-Yes, yes.

That's... That's extraordinary.

-So, I'm a direct descendant...

-Yes.

-..of...

Edward I.

So, what Gerald is telling Ioan is that he is the direct descendant

of the man who conquered Wales and dethroned the first and last

true Prince of Wales.

When one is raised in Wales

-and through, most specifically, through the Welsh language...

-Yes.

..we are...

..sort of, educated to, you know,

that Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf was the last true Prince of Wales.

So, that has, sort of, big significance to me, personally,

you know, from what I learnt as a child and what you, sort of,

feel in your bones, as it were.

But, to...

There is a direct conflict, as you said,

that he was, you could argue, sort of, related to

the King of England, who had signed the treaty...

-Yeah.

-..who then gave birth to the...

-The man who conquered Wales.

-..the man who conquered Wales, as well.

-You've got feet on both sides of the boundary.

-So, I'm on the fence!

-Yes, yes.

-Inconveniently, on the fence.

I hope it isn't too uncomfortable.

You could call it very smart, though, couldn't you?

-Well, you could.

-Hedging my bets.

-Yes, you could.

It's, kind of, stunning, really. A stunning revelation that I'm...

..descended to somebody who wanted to...

I don't know, to cause so much ill to the Welsh and the, sort of,

the Welsh history. Who wanted all the power and the control

all to himself.

So...something to digest on my journey home.

Something quite significant.

Ioan's journey is coming to an end.

But before heading back to his life in America,

Ioan can share what he's learnt, of over 800 years of family stories

with his parents

and then take them home to his American-born children,

to learn of their Welsh roots.

This is where I learned about one of my ancestors, Leslie Griffiths,

who was one of the soldiers in the Second World War.

Ioan's been on the journey of a lifetime.

He has discovered two war heroes...

..and that he has a direct connection to the Royal line.

I think it's gone beyond my wildest dreams, really.

I knew that there were interesting stories to tell.

I knew...

I think every family has an interesting story

somewhere in their lineage.

But to have so many interesting stories,

it's, kind of, blown me away a little bit.

My eldest, Ella, is only six now and she's forever asking me

about where I came from and where we came from.

And this is going to be a wonderful, sort of, tool and opportunity,

to present her with some significant, sort of,

historical background to...to my heritage.