Charles Dance Who Do You Think You Are?

This is the rogue's gallery.

These are the two last plays I did.

Henry V, the first thing I did when I joined

the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Oh, here's an aristocrat that I played.

This is Joss Erroll, the Earl of Erroll.

It's based on a true story.

His roles in White Mischief and hit TV series The Jewel In The Crown

made Charles Dance a household name in the 1980s.

Today he's won worldwide fame playing the baddie Tywin Lannister

in fantasy epic Game Of Thrones.

Throughout his stellar career, Charles has often been cast

as an aristocrat.

I did a film, Gosford Park.

Gosford Park was the forerunner of Downton Abbey.

That was very much upstairs and downstairs.

And I can remember saying, "I should be downstairs, not upstairs."

There's nothing aristocratic about me at all.

My mother, she was a servant from the age of 13.

She was an under house parlourmaid.

You can't get any lower than that.

But she continued to work, either as a waitress,

or a housekeeper for the landed gentry.

She didn't talk much about her family at all.

As far as my father's concerned, I kind of know even less.

My father died when I was four.

I don't have an image of him in my mind.

I believe he was an engineer.

It is the case that I just know very, very little.

Why?

I don't know.

I have two children...

..who are mature.

I also have another little girl, who is four and a half.

I wouldn't like my children to get to the age that I am now...

..and know so little about where they come from as I do.

These are the two photographs I have of my mother.

One photograph of my mother later in life

with my stepfather.

And I have this family photograph of her when she was a child.

What her mother's name was, my grandfather's name, I have no idea.

It would be good to know.

I'm going to go and talk to my brother Michael.

Hopefully my mother told him a little more

than she was able to tell me.

-Yo, brother.

-Hey.

-How are you? All right?

-OK.

Good to see you. Let's go in here.

Come in.

Do you remember my arrival? You were ten years old when I was born.

I do remember your arrival, yeah.

Because you...

We shared a room and I can remember you squalling

when you were an infant and because nothing happened,

I picked you up and went and stood outside her door

to make sure that she could hear you.

Charles and Michael grew up believing they shared

the same father, Walter Dance.

But later in life their mother revealed they had different dads.

Right, so did she ever tell you who your father was?

Did you find out?

No, I didn't ever find out and, no, she didn't tell me.

She was pretty good at keeping secrets.

She was. I have a feeling that that particular secret,

there was an aspect that was dreadful shame.

Single mothers.

It must have been a pretty hard life, actually,

that the family that she came from, being a single mother,

going into service, working all the time,

but she didn't tell either of us very much, really.

What... What was her father's Christian name?

-He was James Perks.

-He was James Perks.

-And what was her mother's name?

-She was...

I think it might have been Marion. I can't remember. But she was Gold.

I was led to believe that they came from the East End of London.

That's my understanding.

-I'm sorry I can't be any more helpful than that, really.

-Right.

There wasn't a discussion between parents and children,

not in our family.

It was very much the maxim of,

children were certainly seen and not heard.

If possible, not even seen!

I feel I know a little more.

I know the name of my maternal grandfather

and my maternal grandmother.

Armed with that pretty minimal information...

..I'd like to go off and see if I can build on that.

Charles has come to the Bishopsgate Institute in east London,

where he has arranged to meet historian Fern Riddel.

Fern, what have you got to tell me?

-I've got lots to tell you.

-Have you? Oh, good. Right.

I have found you the marriage certificate of your grandparents.

OK.

James George Perks, Marion Elizabeth Gold.

A timber sawyer?

And my mother was a waitress.

My grandmother's father, George Gold.

Profession...insurance agent.

That's a bit of a step up from the servant class, isn't it?

Well, it means he's very trustworthy.

He would have been someone who had an education.

So this is a very respectable...

probably upper working-class, lower middle-class family.

This is your great-grandfather George Gold's birth certificate.

-Can you read that?

-I have a transcript.

-Oh, good!

The date of this is 1848.

And George... How do you say that?

-Futvoye.

-Futvoye?

That's a name I've not heard before.

-It's his mother's maiden name.

-Emma Booth, formally Futvoye.

His father's listed.

His father was George Booth.

Why didn't George take father's name, then?

As opposed to George Futvoye Gold?

That's a very interesting question.

To try and figure this out, I went and looked at the censuses

and we've moved now into 1861, in the London borough of Hackney.

Where we have the family of the Golds.

-Son, George Gold.

-Right.

-Your great-grandfather.

His father's name, George Gold senior.

The head of the household,

and here, Emma Gold, wife,

but on the birth certificate...

..for little George Gold, we have the father's name as George Booth.

Yes.

So, has George decided to change his name to Booth

or is George Booth somebody else?

-I think what these documents show us...

-Yeah.

..is a love affair.

Who was having the love affair? George or Emma?

They both are.

With each other.

They're...

Hmm.

What do you mean, with each other?

Well, I've uncovered that both George and Emma

were married to other people.

Oh, oh, I see.

Right, OK.

George Gold senior had a wife called Hannah, who's down in Wiltshire.

He had a wife called Hannah who was living in Wiltshire.

-Emma...

-Yes.

..had a husband called Abraham Booth.

-Emma was married to Abraham Booth?

-Yes.

Which solves the mystery of why we have Booth...

..on your great-grandfather George Futvoye Gold's birth certificate.

Because when your great-grandfather was born,

Emma would have been known as Mrs Booth.

As Mrs Booth? Oh, of course.

And here on the birth certificate she's combined her lover's name

with her husband's name.

George Gold with Abraham Booth, to make George Booth.

I see.

George Gold and Emma Futvoye were both married to other people

but that didn't stop them having a relationship and a son -

Charles's great-grandfather, George Gold junior, born in 1848.

-So George...

-George Gold senior.

-..and Emma had little George...

Yes.

-..out of wedlock.

-And they don't just have George.

-I have a transcript for you again.

-Thank you.

-We have George Gold...

-Right.

-..your great-grandfather.

-And then...

-Ooh, a daughter.

Ann Gold.

I see.

-Right. Two years later.

-Yes.

And a year before that, Edward Gold.

And then... Oh, come on, are you telling me these..?

-No, no, no, no, no!

-All of these.

Emely, John, Alfred, Charles, bless him.

-Seven children!

-Yes.

But they would have wanted to keep the reality of their world a secret

and make sure that no-one could ever trace or find out

that they had both had affairs and were not legally married.

Blimey! I see.

Strewth!

Well, it's all very furtive and very secretive, isn't it?

I mean, how do you live with a secret like that?

It's Emma here.

Her place of birth is Marylebone.

-Then she ends up in Hackney.

-Yeah.

Backward and downward step, I would have thought.

This is quite a complicated life.

This must have had quite an effect on Emma Futvoye.

Futvoye. I've never heard Futvoye before.

What do you know about Futvoye? Is it a name you're familiar with?

I know that the Futvoye family descendants

-have done a lot of research into their family history.

-Right.

And there's an archive up in Lea Mills in Derbyshire.

-So they might be able to tell me more about Futvoye.

-I think so.

I certainly want to find out about Emma Futvoye.

This peculiar name that I've never heard of before.

And her family.

Now, I do know that she hailed from Marylebone...

..but before that, who knows?

Charles is on his way to visit an archive

held at the John Smedley Mill in Derbyshire,

which is set up by other descendants of the Futvoyes.

He's meeting archivist Jane Middleton Smith,

who's been looking into the Futvoye family tree.

-Jane?

-Hello, yes.

-Hello. I'm Charles Dance.

-Nice to meet you.

-So, you're going to show me something exciting?

-I am.

Well, who are all these Futvoyes?

Before we go on, where does the name come from?

-Well, from Belgium.

-Belgium?

-It's originally from Belgium.

-Do we know where in particular?

They came from Spa.

This is all extraordinary, because I thought we'd head further east,

down into the East End of London, and here we are in Belgium.

So the Futvoyes came over, as you can see...

Came to England in 1791.

Where...? Where on here is my great-great-grandmother Emma?

-Here she is.

-Great-great-grandmother Emma.

Along with her...one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, 11 siblings.

Yes. She's part of a very large family.

Brother, George.

I can't quite read that. What does that say? Deputy Minister of...

Militia in Canada.

Emma's brother, Frederick, had an emporium in Regent Street.

Edward was a solicitor.

The girls were all working as governesses

or as teachers of music. They're a well-educated family.

-Quite an impressive bunch, really?

-Yes.

-What more can you tell me?

I can tell you a little bit more about her parents.

Charles Francois and Sarah Cook.

Emma's parents.

He was an artist.

What kind of artist was Charles Francois?

Was he a fine artist? A portrait painter?

-Landscape painter?

-I don't know.

That would be something interesting to find out.

Do we have any other information about Charles Francois, artist?

-Well, I do, actually.

-You do?

-I've got something that I could show you.

This is your three times great-grandfather.

-Is it?

-Charles Francois.

-This is Charles Francois Futvoye?

-Yes.

Good Lord.

I see absolutely no resemblance whatsoever!

I've, kind of, cornered the market in playing rather austere,

villainous characters. There's nothing villainous about him!

-He looks quite jovial and jolly.

-I think he looks a very kindly...

kind of person.

Yes. I guess he does, yes.

Something else to show you.

This is your three times great-grandmother,

Sarah Cook.

Well.

Erm...

There's more of a resemblance to me.

Yes, there is.

-I think so.

-Oh, yeah.

I mean, look, shadows under the eyes!

Quite heavy lidded.

Long nose.

I think he did quite well for himself.

So that's great-great great-grandfather

-and great-great-great-grandmother.

-Yes.

Well, they're both pretty well turned out.

-They're comfortably off. They're people of consequence.

-Yes.

Yes, that's amazing.

Really is.

Be intriguing if she was painted by him, wouldn't it?

Which would make that a self-portrait.

I'd love to know more, I really would.

There is a work that's attributed to him

at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.

Wonderful.

I could see so many features in her face that reminded me of my face.

In fact she looked a bit like me in drag!

And I could also see a resemblance to my mother, too.

Something tells me that possibly these two paintings

might have been painted by him.

It's fascinating,

because I'm now going in a completely different direction,

geographically wise, and also, dare I say, class wise,

I want to know about Charles Francois.

I want to know how good an artist he was,

how well known he was.

Charles is visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Hello, Charles. I'm Sally Woodcock. Welcome to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

-Thank you.

-Do come in.

-Thank you.

He's arranged to see an original work

by his three times great-grandfather.

So, Charles, this is the Fitzwilliam Museum's Futvoye.

So, what do you think?

Good Lord!

I don't know what to think.

-I shall peer more closely at it.

-Absolutely.

Three Little Chinese people flying a kite.

I would have said it was a design for a plate, possibly a woodcut.

Intricate foliage, flowers, leaves and so on

swirling around the outside.

How do you know it's by Charles Francois Futvoye?

Fortunately...

..if you look at the back, it gives a very good indication!

Oh, there it is, Futvoye.

I see.

Futvoye, 83 High St, Marylebone.

Well, we kind of know about the Marylebone connection

from earlier documents that we've seen.

So what was... I mean, what was he actually up to, Sally?

You know, this is not a man who was being commissioned

to paint portraits, this is something else.

He was not a conventional painter as far as we can tell.

No.

We have come across another reference to Futvoye,

which I think you'll find interesting.

This is the account book of Charles Robeson

and he was an artist supplier to pretty much everyone

from Queen Victoria, Royal Academy, to Charles Futvoye,

because he actually was one of Robeson's customers.

This is a page of his purchases.

Two gross four dozen pencils.

18 duck sable brushes.

Yeah, I mean, this is good stuff.

And quite large quantities.

You know, three gross brushes, that's 60.

The day before, he's bought two gross and four dozen.

So getting on for 100 brushes in two days,

which is quite a lot.

It's almost as if he's running a factory.

I want a clearer picture of this man working,

so where can I go to get those answers, do you think?

-Who's going to tell me that?

-I think your next bet is a specialist.

An art historian in this period, but particularly

-in this, sort of, world of decorative art.

-OK.

Well, isn't that an amazing...

I assumed, because he's just described as an artist,

that actually he might have painted those two paintings.

I have a feeling not now.

To solve the mystery of what his three times great-grandfather was up to,

Charles has come to Claydon House in Buckinghamshire,

where he's meeting art historian Alexandra Loske.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Charles, I'm Alexandra.

-How do you do?

-How do you do?

-Let me show you Claydon House.

-Please.

Oh, wow.

Blimey.

What an extraordinary room.

I say!

I feel as if I've woken up in the middle of some extraordinary dream

about, I don't know, China, by the look of it.

This is one of the best examples of Chinoiserie style in this country.

-Chinoiserie style?

-Chinoiserie style.

And it was effectively a vision of the East.

It certainly is!

Yes.

But all, of course, made by Europeans

who had probably never visited the Far East.

-Never been to China.

-Never been to China.

Chinoiserie was an early form of interior decoration...

..inspired by British trade with Asia.

Wallpapers, fabric,

ornaments and furniture were all adorned in this exotic new style.

This is a great example of copying something Oriental.

Here we have the European version of lacquering,

which is often referred to as japanning.

-Japanning?

-Japanning.

-You see all these Oriental motifs on here...

-Right.

..and Charles Futvoye, he had a lot to do with this fashionable style.

-In fact, that was his stock and trade.

-Was it now? Really?

I've found quite a few materials that tell us what he did

-and how he was involved.

-Oh, excellent!

So, would you like to see some of the materials we found?

Please. I mean, this has blown me away, this place.

-Shall we sit down?

-Are we going to sit on here?

-I think we can sit on here, yes.

-OK.

So, here's a copy of a paper

from 1829.

And here is Charles Futvoye.

"Mr Futvoye begs leave to acquaint the nobility and gentry

"that he continues to give instruction in the art of painting

"in imitations of old India, Japan, Marble, Inlaid Ebony and Ivory.

"Specimens of the above arts may be seen at Mr F's repository,

"No.83, High Street, Marylebone,

"where every material requisite for drawing may be had."

So a good businessman and hugely skilled as well.

He knows how to imitate Oriental lacquer,

but he was actually teaching people

and he was providing all the materials.

So what kind of people were Charles's clientele?

It was reasonably wealthy people.

It was considered an accomplishment suitable for ladies.

I see.

Japanning things.

-An alternative to needlepoint?

-Yes. Absolutely.

Charles Futvoye's repository would have been quite similar.

-This is the kind of thing?

-This is the kind of thing he would have run.

So this little print that you saw in Cambridge,

that is just a wonderful example

of something that he would have sold in his shop

and that ladies would have bought and transferred to, maybe,

a little wooden box, varnished it,

and then at the end it would have looked like

-a piece of Oriental lacquer work.

-I see!

-You could buy the box at his shop, too!

-You can buy the box as well!

How fantastic!

Here I am in leafy Marylebone.

I know this neck of the woods quite well, note.

It's not far from where I live in north London.

And this is where Charles Francois Futvoye

had his repository.

God knows what's happening at Number 83 Marylebone High St now.

But, hopefully, we're going to find out.

Oh, heavens above!

This is 83.

This picture that Alexandra gave me, it would have been very like this.

Especially the sky light up there.

I can see racks and racks of, kind of, paintbrushes,

inks, paints, materials for lacquer work.

Stuff like that.

You can smell it, you know?

All the materials needed for the daughters of gentlefolk

to pursue their new hobby of Oriental art.

It's fascinating. It really is.

I still don't know why the Futvoyes...

..came from Belgium, this town of Spa...

..to London.

Charles knows that his three times great-grandfather left Spa

with his parents and came to London in 1791.

To discover why, he's meeting historian William O'Reilly.

So, Spa was this pearl of Europe,

and tourists, particularly wealthy aristocrats and nobles,

teemed into what was the prize spa town and holiday destination

-for people at that time.

-Really?

Gambling, dancing, listening to music, carousing.

-It sounds like Sodom and Gomorrah!

-Having a wonderful time.

-Good Lord!

Spa was famous across Europe for the health-giving properties

of its natural spring waters.

All other spas are named after it.

There were many artists and artisans in Spa,

attracted by the popularity of the town.

The Futvoyes were one of these families.

They were involved, as you know already, in japanning.

So a particular form of elite upper class, if you like, souvenir making,

which Spa became very famous for.

So they were already doing that? I mean, they were doing that

back in Belgium as well, before any of them ever came here?

And very successfully. A thriving trade.

Which sounds like a pretty lively place. A kind of Vegas of Europe.

-Why did they leave?

-They had to, I'm afraid, for political reasons.

The Futvoyes were caught up in a violent uprising in Belgium in 1789.

It was part of the same revolutionary wave

that would topple the monarchy in neighbouring France.

With the aristocratic way of life on which they depended under threat,

the Futvoye family fled Belgium.

They set up shop in London.

So when the Futvoyes came to London, which is a pretty big place,

why did they come to Marylebone especially?

Is there a particular reason?

The well-heeled migrants from across Europe

had begun to move to better areas in London,

including here in Marylebone.

Your family, the Futvoyes, already had comfortable amounts of money

that allowed them to settle into the neighbourhood quite quickly.

In fact, I found something in one newspaper

from the very early 19th century

that sets out some of that family history in a little more detail.

-Right.

-From the London Morning Post.

From June 1814.

It's a small ad placed by the widow

of your fourth great-grandfather, Matthew...

-Charles Francois's father?

-Exactly.

Charles Francois's father, Matthew Futvoye.

"A. Futvoye, widow of the late Mr Futvoye senior,

"imitator of Japan, Chinese work and teacher to the Royal Family..."

Excuse me?

Well, I knew they were teaching, kind of...

daughters of gentlefolk, but the Royal Family?

Almost by Royal appointment?

They've fled turbulent Belgium,

but here they are in rather a smart part of London,

running a very successful business

and being patronised by the Royal Family. Not bad, is it, really?

It's an incredible story of success.

Well!

We've come a long, long way from where I thought we would be going

to find out about my mother.

We've been talking principally about Charles Francois,

which is my three times great-grandfather,

an enterprising, artistic,

cultured man,

and his family.

Miles away from the East End of London,

and the kind of world that I assumed my mother had come from.

Especially as, you know, my mother started life as a servant

and spent her life mostly as a waitress

or working as a housekeeper in smarter people's houses.

I suspect she had absolutely no idea that her ancestors

were living a totally different kind of life.

And it's all come as quite a surprise to me.

A very pleasant surprise.

Now I need to know about my father, because I know...

Well, possibly even less about my father than I knew about my mother.

Charles's father, Walter Dance, died in 1949.

All I know about my dad

was that he died when I was about three and a half to four.

He didn't die of old age.

I think he was in his 50s.

My mother used to refer to him as WD.

He was a divorcee when she met him.

That's all the information I have.

I know absolutely nothing about his personality,

what kind of man he was.

This is the only photograph I have of my father.

I'm on my way now,

to meet somebody who might be able to enlighten me as to...

what the uniform is, what regiment he was in.

All of the things that I need to know

to start piecing together this particular jigsaw puzzle.

-You must be Peter.

-Hello, Charles. Nice to meet you.

Charles is meeting historian Peter Donaldson.

This photograph is the only image I have of my father.

It looks a little bit like a First World War uniform.

-That's what I thought.

-But there are a couple of clues that tell us it's not from the First World War.

-OK.

There are no breast pockets on Walter's tunic here.

In the First World War soldiers had breast pockets

to slip their pay book in.

Also, he's wearing a rather fancy belt with a brass buckle.

Those had disappeared by the First World War.

We could date this pretty precisely

to the 15 years or so before the First World War.

-15?

-Back to 1900.

Blimey!

Something immediately occurs to me.

What's that?

This might not be my father.

Oh, gosh.

-Why...why you think that?

-Well...

..because he died in...

..1949,

when my father was about 50.

-Let's say that's 1900.

-Yes.

He would have been a baby.

This is not a baby.

Well, we've got another document,

and that gives us a little bit more information about this man

in the photograph.

This is Walter Dance's form he filled in

when he enlisted in the Army.

-This is this man?

-Yeah.

-Oh, thank God for that.

I thought we were... Right, OK. Right.

What's the date of this document?

23rd of January, 1900.

What is your age... 25 years, eight months. Oh, blimey!

So in 1900, he was nearly 26!

He was nearly 26, yes.

So...

he was born in 1874.

1874, exactly, yes.

Wow. OK.

Charles now knows that his dad was born 26 years earlier

than he previously thought.

He would have been 72 when Charles was born.

And we go over the page,

we can see a little bit more about Walter's service record.

He was posted on the 30th of April, 1900.

If we look on the first page again,

he signed up for either the duration of the war in South Africa...

Oh, I didn't know that. War in South Africa?

"For a term of one year unless the war in South Africa lasts longer."

-Was this the Boer War?

-The Boer War, that's right.

Charles's father, Walter, enlisted to serve in the Boer War

which was fought in South Africa between the British

and Dutch settlers, known as Boers.

After the war broke out in 1899,

heavy British losses led to an appeal for volunteers.

Walter answered that call.

His service record contains details about his family

at the time he joined up.

-Name and address and next of kin.

-Oh, right.

Oh, wife?! Louie Rowley Morris.

Particulars as to children.

-Norah?

-Norah.

So Louie and Walter have a child, Norah.

She was born on the 11th of December, 1898.

So...I have a sister.

I see. Right.

Charles has discovered that his dad Walter had a wife, Louie,

and daughter, Norah - Charles's half sister,

who was born nearly 50 before him.

Young daughter's born in 1898 and a year later

he signs up for active service in South Africa.

A rather odd thing to do, don't you think?

I mean, was there a great, kind of, recruiting drive at this point?

There was a huge recruiting drive.

So Walter would have gone forward to do his patriotic duty,

to serve his country in a moment of crisis.

-But, for some men, it would have been a sense of adventure, excitement.

-I see.

Actually, we do have some more information

about Walter and his war record up at the Royal Fusilier Museum,

where his regiment was based.

-We can go there and have a look at that if you'd like?

-Excellent.

I can feel the hairs going up on the back of my neck. Wonderful.

Walter Dance was in the Royal Fusiliers.

Charles is on his way to the regimental archives

held in the Tower of London.

Charles, what we have here is the medal roll from the Royal Fusiliers.

This is the battalion that your father was in.

-Right.

-And here are...

..the names of those who were from your father's battalion

who were awarded the South Africa Medal.

QUIETLY READS NAMES

8953, Sergeant Dance, W.

And to go with the Roll of Honour,

we have the actual medal that your father would have been awarded.

Good Lord!

So this is a campaign medal that all those who served in the war

in South Africa, the Boer War, would have received.

And the clasps tell you the campaigns they were engaged in.

Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony.

By the time Walter reached South Africa,

the war had entered a brutal guerilla phase.

The Boers adopted hit and run tactics,

launching surprise attacks on British bases

and blowing up supply lines and communications.

We know from the regimental diaries that Walter

and the Second Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers

were spending a lot of their time hunting down Boer guerillas.

That would involve day after day of arduous route marching.

At night-time he'd be on camp duty, maybe on picket duty,

out 1,000 metres beyond the camp perimeter,

-in the dark, on high alert, waiting for a Boer ambush possibly.

-Wow.

So really physically and psychologically demanding work.

-Pretty tough?

-Pretty tough. Absolutely. Very tough.

-Blimey.

It would have taken a huge amount of endurance and courage.

Well, I have to say, this is quite moving, Peter,

you know, because, erm...

Because I know so little, you see,

so gradually, bit by bit...

..we're finding out about the life of a man...

..who I just knew this name, WD.

And you've been able to tell me an enormous amount.

And I think these artefacts do connect, don't they, to the person?

Yeah, they do, yeah.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

It's rather extraordinary to know that here, in my 70th year,

I'm only finding out about all this now.

There's something about this...

..that, erm...

..I do find quite moving.

Charles's father returned from South Africa in 1901.

Charles wants to know what happened next to Walter,

his first wife, Louie,

and their daughter, Norah.

Well, after the revelations of yesterday,

which left me reeling somewhat,

I'm back in the relative peace and tranquillity of my own home.

And I thought I'd delve into the Census records,

which are published every ten years, I believe.

So I think if I look in 1911,

because Dad would be back from South Africa then.

Hopefully, this will give me a start.

Anyway, as much as I can find out off my own bat.

Here we are. Walter Dance. Head of family. 37.

Louie Dance...she was 41.

Four years older than him.

Total children born alive, two.

Children still living, one.

Children who have died...

one.

I hope it wasn't Norah who died.

No, Norah's 12 at the time.

And she was at school.

Thankfully, Norah is still with us. Sister Norah.

I wonder if anybody can tell me a bit more...

..about...

..my other brother or sister.

Hmm.

I found out that I had not one, but two other siblings...

..one of whom died.

Charles wants to know more about his sibling who died.

He's agreed to meet genealogist Judy Leicester in Acton.

I hope you're Judy, otherwise I'm approaching

-a total stranger in the street.

-Indeed I am.

-Very pleased to meet you.

-And you.

I searched for a birth registration for any other child of Walter and Louie,

and I did find that they'd had a daughter.

-Oh, another daughter.

-This document explains a little bit about her.

Born on 13th May, 1903.

Name, if anything, Mary Rowley.

So...little Mary Rowley.

I think, probably, Walter moved around a lot,

as work opportunities arose for him.

-Yeah.

-He was in a profession that was in great demand at that time.

An electrical engineer.

So, tell me, do you know what happened to Mary?

I've got another document which will show you what happened to Mary.

Death in the subdistrict of Acton.

16th July, 1908.

At 100 Goldsmith Avenue.

Mary Rowley Dance, female, five years old.

Fracture of the skull?

Caused by being accidentally struck by a scaffold pole?

Good God!

So what do you think happened?

-Well, Acton was an expanding suburb at this time.

-Yeah.

There was a lot of building work going on,

and the houses in this street had been completed by about 1907,

but the surrounding streets would have been very much like

-a building site.

-Oh, my God, yes.

So she might have been playing on the building site.

Yes, especially as it was the summer holidays from school.

-Oh, yes, of course.

-She could have been out playing in the street.

But we do know that she died in the family home.

So it's possible she was taken back to the house

from wherever the accident happened.

-This is Goldsmith Avenue?

-Yes, just up here, these houses.

-Number 100.

-Number 100.

So I'm trying to find number 100.

Where are we now? 84. OK.

A few more to go.

And 100.

Hmm.

She might have been playing on a building site.

Little Mary comes back here...

..and this is where she died.

It would be nice to know what she looked like.

I've an image...

..of a pretty little girl.

I have a very pretty little girl.

I have a very pretty bigger girl!

And, thank God, they're all right.

Horrible.

Absolutely horrible.

I don't really want to think about it, but I am thinking about it.

It is overwhelmingly sad.

And I don't think, as a parent...

one would ever get over something like that.

Evening.

Hi, darling. Can I have a glass of pinot, I'll be over there.

-I'll bring it over.

-Thank you. Thanks.

Charles wants to know what happened to his dad after Mary died.

He is checking the electoral register.

Walter Dance, The Bryn, Keith Road, Hayes, Middlesex.

So...they've moved now,

from Goldsmith Avenue,

to Keith Road, Middlesex.

And they were there from 1912, 1913, 1914,

1922, 1923, '24...

My mother did tell me that Walter and his first wife were divorced.

But in 1924 he was still living under the same roof.

And it's still Louie Dance and Walter Dance,

so I assume they were still married, but their names

do not appear after 1924.

It seems that...

they weren't around, not in London then.

To discover why his dad disappeared from the records,

Charles has enlisted the help of genealogist Laura Berry.

Hello, Charles. Lovely to meet you.

-And you, please.

-Thank you.

Since Walter dropped off the radar in 1924,

I decided to have a look through newspapers and magazines,

and I did actually find this entry in the Surveyor Magazine from 1923.

"Appointments wanted.

"Engineer. Electrical mechanical and construction.

"Desirous of settling in South Africa..."

Yeah, cos he'd been there for a while during the Boer War.

So he's looking for a job in South Africa.

Which was a brilliant lead,

because I then went to have a look at some passenger lists.

And I found this ship,

and the date is just about a year after the advert was posted.

The SS Baradine.

Names of passengers...

..Dance, Walter and Mrs Louise - Louie - Dance.

So...basically, selling up in England and going to South Africa.

Why did they decide to go out to South Africa?

Well, Norah married a South African man.

-Really?

-Mmm.

-OK.

Charles's sister, Norah, married Hugo Hugo-Brunt in 1921.

Walter and his first wife, Louie, moved to South Africa

to be close to them three years later.

So I would love it if you could shed a little more light on...

..Walter and Louie's life after

boarding this vessel to South Africa.

Well, having found the whole family going out to South Africa,

I then did a trawl of the archives in South Africa,

and discovered that Norah died in 1993, unfortunately.

Did she? Died in 1993.

Blimey!

She was born in 1898.

That's a pretty good innings, isn't it, really?

Yeah. The only thing that I found was a will for Norah...

-Yeah.

-..dated from 1993.

-Right.

She names her executor as Nonine Knox, who was her granddaughter.

-And that would be your great-niece.

-Nonine Knox.

So my great-niece.

I have actually managed to find an address for Nonine.

So that's where she's living in Pretoria.

Is she really? Nonine is living in Pretoria?

-Yes.

-So, hopefully, I can find out a fair bit more.

I didn't know anything about this whole other life in South Africa.

Now I have a great-niece in South Africa.

Does Nonine, who I'm going to go and see...

does she know of my relationship to Norah?

Her grandmother?

Does she realise that?

The fact that I am Norah's half brother?

We share this not that usual name, Dance.

Why no attempt has been made...

..to get in touch with me.

Anyway.

Maybe I'll find out.

Charles has travelled thousands of miles

to meet his great-niece in South Africa.

He's heading to Pretoria, where she lives.

I hope Nonine is going to be able to tell me

about her grandmother, my sister.

And hopefully, a little, if not a lot more, about my father.

You must be Nonine.

-Pleased to meet you.

-I'm very pleased to meet you too!

Well! We've come a long way for this.

-Can we go somewhere and talk?

-Come, please.

-Thank you.

Charles doesn't know if Nonine realises that he is her great-uncle.

We've been trying to put the story together,

not quite sure where we fit in this story.

I was led to believe you were a cousin.

I'll tell you, if you don't know.

Look, other than the fact that I know that your surname is Dance

-and my grandmother's maiden name was Dance.

-Indeed.

And my boys have watched all your movies.

-Really?

-Mm-hmm.

Well, they have impeccable taste, that's all I can say.

And your granny, that's my half sister.

-Is that your half sister?

-That's Norah.

-That's absolutely amazing.

-Yeah, yeah.

Let's bring it in.

Nonine has a chest of memorabilia passed down to her by Norah.

-That's Norah.

-That's Norah!

-I don't know her age at that photograph.

Hello, Norah.

Norah wrote her autobiography.

She what?! Oh-hoh!

Well done, Norah!

OK. Glasses.

OK.

Norah Hugo-Brunt, chapter one.

In her autobiography Norah writes about her and Charles's dad,

who was one of five brothers.

"Father used to recount that when they arrived in Broadstairs

"the word went around, look out, the Dance Boys have arrived."

Ha!

"They were a gay young crowd, and in their youth

"had the good fortune of living in a town house in London,

"and a country house in Broadstairs, Kent,

"where they spend most of... the summer months."

Oh, dear.

I don't know why this is quite so overwhelming, but it is.

"My father had a great sense of humour." Oh, good for him!

"Much too much sometimes when in a mischievous mood.

"Often amongst strangers, this caused me considerable embarrassment."

Yeah, I think I do that to my children!

"He was a strong swimmer."

I swim.

"Keen shot, fisherman, tennis and cricket player and boxer.

"In fact, one could call him a pretty good all-rounder."

Well, you know, I wasn't great academically at school,

but I was quite sporty, did all these things.

"He was tall, about six feet in height,

"broad shouldered, ruddy complexion that goes with red hair.

"His eyes were greeny blue, and he liked to refer to his nose as Roman."

I'm tall, I'm broad shouldered, I have a ruddy complexion.

I used to have red hair.

I've got a kind of Roman nose.

"He was a lovable and a generous man,

"and slow to anger."

Yeah, it takes a lot to wind me up.

I mean, really.

For me to have a temper, somebody has to really...

..put my nose out of joint seriously, before I lose my temper.

"He had a weak streak, liked to be considered a ladies' man."

I think that's a quality, not a fault!

I think I've inherited quite a lot of that, really.

Charles wants to know about his dad's life in South Africa,

and how he ended up returning to London and marrying his mum.

"Father became the electrical engineer for the little town of...

-"Humansdorp?"

-That's right.

"They adored their grandchildren."

Hmm.

So that's why they came out to South Africa.

But they came back? I wonder why?

"In 1936 I went through the agony of having to say goodbye

"to my beloved parents.

"Father had had a serious illness necessitating an operation...

"I expect too, he never really got it out of his system

"that he had fought the Boers.

"There was only one thing to do, return to their homeland.

"My mother died very shortly after she returned."

Phwoar!

That's quite something, isn't it?

-So... They didn't divorce.

-No.

They went back to England together, and, unfortunately, she died.

Now, Walter married my mother,

really not long after Louie died.

So...

I wonder if...

Norah had a bit of a problem with that?

-Probably did.

-You know.

-The time lapse was too short.

Well, it's kind of not surprising.

But then that's kind of explains why I don't know our relationship.

No.

No, well, we're starting.

All right, this is day one.

-Day one!

-OK.

-Chapter one.

-Yeah.

Norah also kept albums of photographs,

which include pictures of Charles's dad.

-Is this the old man?

-Yes, that's him.

Wow.

1921, so he was 47 here.

Do you see a resemblance?

-Yes, I do.

-Do you?

-Yes.

-OK.

So there he is.

Pipe clamped firmly between his teeth.

-Now I've got one more of him.

-Have you? OK.

It's hidden in the back of the book here.

Very dapper indeed.

Very dapper. I don't know what the occasion was.

He's got a bit of a twinkle in his eye, hasn't he?

-A naughty twinkle!

-Oh, well...

You say you only have one photograph of him.

Yes. Yeah.

And it's...

-There you go.

-Oh, my God.

Thank you very much, thank you.

I think that's very special.

It is.

It is indeed.

This is great. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You're welcome.

Charles, would you like to meet the rest of my family?

Come on in.

Hello, how do you do? What's your name?

-Fraser.

-Fraser, hi.

-Nice to meet you.

-I'm Ramsey.

-Hi, Ramsey.

-I'm Darren.

-Hi, Darren.

I'm your great, great-uncle, OK, take it or leave it!

-I think I'll take it, eh?

-Good! Excellent.

There was more than an element of surprise, of course,

to find out that I have a whole other family,

Nonine, who I've met, and Nonine's family.

So I have a great niece, and I have great great-nephews.

I've made contact with them now.

A whole other world.

Wonderful.

The understanding that I now have of my father and his life,

in some peculiar way...

..has given me more of an understanding about me.

What I feel about Walter Dance, my dad, is quite proud.

Dare I say, quite a good-looking man.

He was well turned out.

He was upright. He swam, he played tennis, fished.

I kind of do all those things.

So that's come down to me.

It's a very revealing process.

Overall, I think I'm pretty proud of him, actually.

I wish I'd known him.