Clare Balding Who Do You Think You Are?

Amazing how fresh they are, though.

-I know.

-As soon as they come out, they are like coils of energy.

Clare Balding is one of Britain's leading sports presenters

and broadcasters.

They are very excited about the sport,

and so too are my three guests this evening,

who between them have won 12 Olympic gold medals.

It's unusual for me to be looking backwards.

I'm always about the next thing, the next Winter Olympics,

the next Commonwealth Games, the next Olympics.

So, actually, to be reflective about anything is rare for me.

Come on, Archie.

Clare lives in London with her wife, Alice Arnold.

Might get inspiration from one of the runners.

Break into a trot.

My mother's ancestry is very well explored in the history books.

Her mother's mother came from a very famous aristocratic line,

so I'd rather go a route that I don't know anything about.

I mean, I tell you who was never talked about -

my mother's grandfather.

Never talked about.

I just wonder - and this is another thing that has

been sort of whispered in the family - could he have been gay?

I suppose it would mean that I am not the first one

to be in a same-sex relationship

and to be gay, and certainly not the only one.

I come from a big, big family.

There are bound to be others anyway,

but it would be so interesting if it is that direct.

I'm very curious, I'm very inquisitive,

so I'm looking forward to sort of ferreting around in lives that have

seemed closed to me, and maybe finding things

that they didn't ever mean to be public.

Come on, Arch.

That will be really intriguing.

So, this is my starting point.

This is a portrait of my grandmother's mother,

my great-grandmother, so Lady Victoria Stanley,

by an artist called John Lavery, who I think is quite well known.

And it's rather haunting.

You can't really tell anything from it.

It's inscrutable. I know she was a daughter of the Earl of Derby,

I think his only daughter.

She died very young, in her early 30s, and I think,

I'm pretty sure it was a riding accident.

This is a photograph of her daughter, my grandmother,

talking to my brother. I'm about eight here.

But, yeah, I would like to find out more about Lady Victoria,

whose life, obviously, was very short,

but also more about Lady Victoria's husband,

who was a man called Sir Malcolm Bullock,

and he was my grandmother's father.

And he is a mystery. I mean, I don't even know what he looks like.

I think he worked in politics, I'm not quite sure how senior,

and there is something of a whiff of scandal around him.

There was a story that grandma had a load of letters to him,

and there was something in them she didn't like, and so she burned them.

Why would somebody do that?

Why would you burn a load of correspondence

unless there was something to hide? I just wonder -

and this is another thing that I think has never been cleared up,

that has been sort of whispered in the family -

might he have been homosexual, as they said in those days,

which would have been obviously illegal at the time,

and hugely shameful, and I suspect, to my grandmother, quite appalling.

There was mention of an artist, Rex Whistler.

Whether my great-grandfather was involved with him on a business,

you know, arrangement when he was financially supporting him,

or just was a fan and buying his work,

or whether he was emotionally involved with him, I don't know.

And that's something I would love to discover.

Clare wants to start by investigating the mystery

surrounding her maternal great-grandfather,

Sir Malcolm Bullock.

She is heading back to Hampshire, where she grew up,

and where many of her family still live.

I think the best place to start is with my mother's eldest brother,

Uncle Willie. So, he was grandma's eldest son,

and he would be the one who might remember his grandfather,

Sir Malcolm Bullock.

And he may know how well his grandfather knew Rex Whistler,

and he lives in Grandma's old house.

-Hello.

-Good day.

-How are things?

-Very well, how was your journey?

-Wet. Dark. You know.

-Come on in.

-Thanks.

So, I know very well what grandma's mother looked like,

because she is staring at me from a portrait in my house,

but I don't know what Sir Malcolm Bullock looked like.

Well, here is a picture, a photograph of him,

that was probably taken between the wars.

Well, he looks a little bit like you.

-I mean...

-What, good-looking?

-Yes, dashing, handsome!

He's actually got a very kind face.

-I think I would have liked him.

-I'm sure you would.

And then this here is a picture of us both together with his terrier.

Look at your flares!

Was he fun? Did you like him?

Yeah, he was great fun, because he was a very witty raconteur.

And am I right in thinking he was in politics?

Yes, he was an MP for, I think, over 30 years.

-Oh, right.

-He also had a deep interest and love of France.

He was made a commandant of the Legion of Honour

for Anglo-French relations, which was, you know,

a huge honour for a foreigner.

And he enjoyed the theatre and opera, and, you know,

all the fun things in London.

In those days, they were obviously great letter writers,

and there is a selection of letters there.

So this is from Evelyn.

-Probably Waugh.

-Really?

-Yes.

This one, from Berkeley Square.

"Dearest Malcolm, shattered at missing you again.

"I'd imagined you would be in Paris for Easter.

"Much love, Nancy."

Nancy Mitford.

God, wow, he really was in the sort of arty, literary set, wasn't he?

-Yes.

-And this is from John Gielgud?

Oh, wow!

"Dear Malcolm, I was very touched by your kind letter."

He must have written a supportive letter after a bad review.

So he was very well-connected in the arts and literary circles.

-Yes.

-Did you ever hear rumours that he might have been in a relationship

-with a man, with an artist?

-No.

But he was, obviously, part of that set, as it were.

So it wouldn't be impossible.

And did you hear the name Rex Whistler at all?

Only from an artistic point of view.

It wasn't something that was a very common topic of discussion

or anything like that.

I felt as if I had suddenly met Malcolm Bullock with Uncle Willie,

and now I'm on the trail, trying to find out a bit more.

I'm driving to Salisbury -

they have got, I believe, an archive collection

of Rex Whistler's - to discover if there is anything

from Rex Whistler's side that might tell us

whether he knew Malcolm Bullock, and attack it from that end

of the field of play, if you see what I mean.

Rex Whistler shot to fame in 1927 when, at the age of only 22,

he painted a mural at the Tate Gallery restaurant in London.

During the 1930s, he moved in glamorous social circles

and had many wealthy friends and clients.

Clare's come to Salisbury Museum

to meet an expert on Rex Whistler's life and work, Nicky Fraser.

-Nicky, hi.

-Hello, Clare, lovely to meet you.

-Very nice to meet you, too.

-Welcome to Salisbury Museum.

Well, I'm sort of on the... I'm on the hunt for clues.

Does the name Malcolm Bullock mean anything to you?

Yes, it does. Yes, it does.

I've got some things to show you - follow me.

The archive, including letters and diaries,

was gathered together by Rex's brother, Laurence Whistler.

Laurence used the material to write a biography of Rex.

So this is my great-grandfather.

-Gosh.

-Malcolm Bullock.

So, what do you know?

Because I have sort of heard that he and Rex Whistler

-might have been very close.

-They definitely had a close friendship.

Here we have a tatty-looking calendar

that would have been hanging up in Rex's studio.

-This is from 1931.

-1931.

So it is four years after Malcolm's wife, Lady Victoria Stanley,

-had died.

-And here we have March.

"Dine, 8.30, M Bullock, at Houses of Parliament."

-And...

-Oh, there, "Dined Malcolm Bullock on the 24th."

And there is, is that Malcolm B there on the 28th?

And where are they going?

Opera. Malcolm. 130. I mean this, now we are getting every three days.

And just here at the end of May, written in capital letters, Paris.

Yes, they went to Paris together.

How do you know that?

The letter describing their trip together is in this box,

which was Lawrence's filing system.

And we have got various different headings, Rex's letters...

Royal drawing society.

Rex love.

Rex love!

Love.

Right. What have we got?

This is a letter that Malcolm wrote to Lawrence after Rex's death,

when Lawrence was preparing the biography.

Whose writing is this in pencil?

That's Lawrence's writing.

And Malcolm. It says, "Dear Lawrence,

"1931 was the date of the Byzantine exhibition.

-"We stayed at the charming Hotel Fleurie in Paris."

-Yes.

Yes. Now, EO is Edith Olivia, who was a great friend of Rex's,

so Lawrence is cross-referencing information from her diaries.

"Ashcombe. I heard Cecil begin to be amusing over Rex and Malcolm

"going to Paris together."

-People were talking.

-Yes.

And what do we know about Rex's sexuality?

It's a bit ambivalent.

Within a few years Rex starts to fall in love with women,

but around this time he did have older male friends, such as Malcolm.

What do you think was happening?

After all, these letters are stored in a section that says love.

At the interesting thing is,

this was obviously Laurence Whistler's filing system,

so this is how he perhaps saw the relationship.

If they were in a relationship,

obviously that, in England, would be illegal,

so we are not going to seek a love letter here, are we?

-No, we are not, no.

-Because you wouldn't dare do that.

No, and if one did exist, Rex burnt a lot of documents, letters...

And so did my grandmother.

Burnt a lot of things. If there was anything,

-it may well have been destroyed.

-Yes, yes.

And do we know how long their friendship/relationship lasted?

It was several months of quite intense friendship.

I think Malcolm may have been keener,

and there was a bit of a cooling off.

-Oh, poor Malcolm!

-I know.

We have now got a bit more of Rex's friend Edith's take on things.

"R has told M that he does not want to see him so much and Malcolm would

"accept dismissal. I am all for his breaking of brutally because I hate

"R to be considered the kind of man

"which apparently MB's friends are considered."

Gosh! Yeah, you suddenly see the sort of...

The whiff of homophobia, obviously, in here which...

-Yes.

-You know. Is this Rex's writing?

This is Rex's writing.

And he says, "I've been engaged in the most awful correspondence with

"Malcolm B for some time now,

"and the last horror has been that he sent me a very expensive book.

"I returned it to him."

Oh! So, harsh, oh!

Yes, this is rather harsh.

Rejection!

Yes. Things have gone a little bit downhill.

A little bit downhill?

Nikki, that's the biggest understatement ever!

Things have crashed and burned.

-This is awful.

-They have.

Malcolm is heartbroken, Rex doesn't care because he has ended it.

-I think...

-Heartless, your man, he's heartless.

-I think Rex did care.

-Ok.

There's something else I want to show you.

Ulysses's farewell.

"For Sir Malcolm Bullock. Oil on canvas."

Their close relationship was over but he did this huge painting

for him, and it was a gift.

If that is a parting gift,

that is a very sophisticated way in which to say thank you and goodbye.

Well, it's obviously true that my great-grandfather

had a deep relationship of some sort with Rex Whistler -

nobody will ever know whether that was physical or not.

There's a hint of tension in everything

because he's a very public figure, he's an MP,

and he's clearly living a lifestyle that suggests he might be engaged

in illegal acts, and, you know, you can't say this often enough -

it was illegal for a man to be homosexual.

I sort of wonder the kind of life that he was living.

So Nicky says, if I was going to try and find out more about Malcolm's

set, I should go to Kent.

To Kent I shall go - that's the nature of it.

And she says to follow up on a friend that she knows

that Malcolm Bullock saw a lot of - Sir Philip Sassoon.

Sir Philip Sassoon was a British politician

and a member of the fabulously wealthy Sassoon

and Rothschild families.

He was famed as an extravagant host who threw lavish house parties

attended by the glamorous A-listers of the day.

One of his homes was the country house Port Lympne.

Hi there, Damian.

-Hi there, Clare.

-Very nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you, too. Welcome to Port Lympne.

Before we go inside, I'll take you out to the terrace

and give you a bit of a sense of the location.

Damian Collins MP is an expert on Philip Sassoon and his circle.

The location is really why Philip Sassoon loved this house

and built it here.

That is extraordinary.

You do feel when you are Port Lympne like you are in an enclosed world,

which I think is what Philip Sassoon wanted.

It makes it ideal as a great party house and a place to entertain

his friends, but I thought perhaps we could wander into the house.

And then so my great-grandfather was a guest here.

That's right, he was.

I thought you might be particularly interested to see this room.

It hasn't really changed very much since Malcolm Bullock

-would have been a guest here at Lympne.

-Is this a Rex Whistler?

-Yes, that's right.

-Oh!

So this was commissioned by Philip Sassoon and Whistler painted this

during the summer when the parties were going on.

And there's a very good description here of one of Phillip's parties.

"He made his weekend parties unparalleled in the world.

"Nothing like them had been seen before,

"and surely nothing remotely like them will ever be seen again.

"No pomp, no ceremony, no formality, no white ties, just dinner jackets."

Still pretty smart!

"But always, when he went to change for dinner,

"a carnation and a cocktail on your dressing table.

"Today it all seems like a dream of another world.

"A white-coated footman,

"Winston Churchill arguing over the teacups with Bernard Shaw,

"Rex Whistler painting alone,

"Osbert Sitwell and Malcolm Bullock laughing in a corner."

They sound quite good house parties, I have to say.

Philip Sassoon was very socially liberal for the time

so if someone had got a girlfriend or boyfriend

that they maybe shouldn't have then they could relax with them here

with other friends, as well.

It is interesting that that element of, you know,

you can be with who you want to be, you won't be judged here,

and it won't be reported outside this circle.

-Yes, yes.

-So there is a privacy to it.

One of the things I've been looking at is whether Malcolm Bullock

had a relationship with Rex Whistler and whether actually he may have had

relationships with other men.

Do you know anything about that?

Well, I think Philip Sassoon himself,

it is believed that he was actively homosexual,

but it could never be public.

Now, when you look at Phillip's parties,

I think they divide into two groups.

There are the big sort of social gatherings we have talked about,

with celebrities and famous people and politicians,

but then lots of gatherings as well where you see groups of men

who we now know were either homosexual or certainly bisexual -

so Bob Boothby, Malcolm Bullock and other MPs like Victor Cazalet,

Chips Channon, they are often together at Phillip's parties,

and I think there he provides opportunity for, probably,

a group of gay men to basically socialise with each other.

Gosh, you just say that as if it is accepted fact, group of gay MPs,

Malcolm Bullock was one of them.

Yes. But again I think whether that was publicly known about,

I think they would have been very careful to make sure that it wasn't.

In my mind, there's no doubt that he was gay,

bisexual, but you know, he had to be married

but he certainly would rather have been with men,

so I am very curious about my great-grandparents,

Malcolm Bullock and Lady Victoria Stanley,

who died very young, I think, in a riding accident.

I would love to know how this marriage came about, whether it was,

you know, a marriage of convenience, I've no idea.

So I'm going to Liverpool, which is where Malcolm Bullock was an MP,

but also, crucially, it's where Knowsley is,

which is the family seat of the Earl of Derby,

so that's where Lady Victoria Stanley was born,

where she grew up, and I hope at Knowsley,

I'll be able to find out a bit more about both of them

and particularly Lady Victoria Stanley...

..but I suspect a fair bit about Malcolm as well.

Malcolm Bullock and Lady Victoria Stanley first met in Paris in 1918,

when Lady Victoria was a young widow.

Malcolm had come to work for her father, the 17th Earl of Derby,

who was British ambassador in Paris.

Clare wants to find out more about her great-grandparents' relationship

at that time.

The current Earl of Derby,

who would be a cousin of my mother's, he's away,

so I'm going to meet the archivist.

Only a little pad, eh?

Gosh!

The curator of the Derby collection, who looks after the archives

at Knowsley, is Stephen Lloyd.

These are all your Stanley family ancestors.

-A bit overwhelming.

-So, here we are, here's the 17th Earl.

Who is my great-great-grandfather?

-Correct.

-So he's the one that is the ambassador in France, he's in Paris,

and after Lady Victoria's first husband died in the First World War

he introduces her to this chap, Captain Malcolm Bullock.

-Who was on his staff, the embassy staff.

-He worked for him?

He was the ADC, yes, and this rather grand portrait

is by Sir John Lavery.

Which makes sense that this, which is my great-grandmother...

-That's a beautiful portrait.

-..is a Lavery as well?

-Yes.

And I'm just really intrigued by her,

and her life, and her marriage to Malcolm Bullock.

Well, we have got some archival material on her which you

would be interested to see.

So the story starts when Lord Derby is made British ambassador in Paris

in November 1918.

-Do have a look through.

-Look at these pictures!

The King of the Belgians.

A very fine-looking horse, that, as well. Now this is at Longchamp.

This Lord Derby is very keen on racing. Yes?

I mean, he's one of the key figures in the history of racing in the

-20th century.

-Consequently Lady Victoria is interested in horses

-and racing.

-Mm-mm, she was certainly going to a lot of social events

-with her father.

-And he adored her, didn't he?

Yes. And into this world of the embassy in Paris

comes Malcolm Bullock.

What I can show you is this document.

"A quiet marriage ceremony in Paris" -

so they got married in Paris!

As well as official documents there are also personal letters,

including one Lady Victoria wrote to Malcolm while he was away

from the embassy.

"My own darling, I was racing today at Saint-Luc and, for a wonder,

"made a little money."

Oh, she's having a bet. Good on her.

"I then went to tea with Nina, where we were interrupted

"in the most interesting discussion on sex by Dada.

"Du Boss told me, with great delight,

"that he had just been seeing the King of Spain off at the station.

"What a bore he must have been!"

She's got a good sense of humour, hasn't she?

They've been talking about sex!

You know, there's a portrait of her in my house.

-Mm.

-And I thought that expression was just neutral.

Gave away... I couldn't read anything into it,

and now I can hear her voice and imagine her being

this sort of slightly cheeky, funny...

-A little bit irreverent.

-A little bit irreverent, yes.

So how long did they stay in Paris?

The 17th Earl's embassy in Paris ends in November 1920

after two years, and the whole family comes back,

but in 1927 everything changes. Right, which is the...

year of her accident.

Gosh. Did they document that?

Yes, it's a scrapbook about what happened.

Oh, God. 26th of the 11th, 26th of November, 1927,

"Earl of Derby's daughter gravely injured.

"Lady V Bullock falls while hunting.

"Lord Derby is abroad and attempts were made this evening

"to communicate with him."

This is in every single newspaper.

Hang on a sec! I mean, that is every paper of the day.

And there's a picture of her on her horse, riding side-saddle.

"Lady Victoria Bullock, Lord Derby's only daughter

"and personal friend of Princess Mary died yesterday

"from injuries received in a hunting accident."

So it says, "The only person who witnessed the accident

"was Mr C Richardson, who was a groom.

"He was riding near Lady Victoria when she remarked,

"I'm going this way, it's a short cut,

"and indicated a low bridge under the railway line.

"Mr Richardson, he lowered his head and passed through the tunnel

"safely, went through he happened to glance back

"just in time to see Lady Victoria strike her head on the brickwork

"and fall from the horse."

So her horse must have just been...

She's on a big horse in that picture,

but it just must've been a bit bigger than his and also,

when you're riding side-saddle you are just a bit higher.

You sit very upright, whereas...

If you are riding astride,

you can lean right down and bend your body into.

If you are riding side-saddle, if you think about it,

it's much harder to get your head down low.

I've never seen any of this.

You see, I knew that she had died in a riding accident -

I thought it was out hunting.

There again, it says a bit more about her character.

"Lady Victoria Bullock was distinguished by a natural grace

"of manner which charmed all who met her."

"His friends are much concerned for Captain Malcolm Bullock MP

"in his overwhelming grief.

"He was devoted to his wife and his home,

"and in a moment his happiness has been shattered."

And I just wanted to show you this letter to Malcolm

from Winston Churchill.

"My dear Malcolm, you and Victoria were so suited to one another,

"so devoted to each other, that this separation and destruction

"of your happiness seems doubly cruel."

And there's the reply.

Yes. "Victoria and I had eight years of perfect happiness together,

"without a cloud or anything to regret.

"I cannot yet believe that it is all over."

You see, I can absolutely...

Where I had wondered whether her marriage to Malcolm was one of

convenience, I actually think now they were really happy.

Mm-mm.

And then we have... We have a letter of sympathy

from Lord Derby himself to Malcolm.

"My dear Malcolm, I send you a photograph of our darling.

"It's not really good but she liked it.

"I can't talk or write to you about her, I'm too great a coward..."

There's me saying I wouldn't cry on this.

It's that line, "I can't talk or write to you about her,

"I'm too great a coward, but I loved her as no man has ever loved

"his daughter, and with her has gone all joy from my life."

Desperate.

Oh, pull yourself together, come on!

-It's just very touching, isn't it?

-Yes.

That's very sweet, that he sort of immediately offers his support

to Malcolm.

"I want you to think that I am to you all that I had tried to be

"to her, that you have in me a friend to whom you can always turn."

That's just raw grief, isn't it?

It is amazing how quickly you can feel attached to somebody

by hearing their voice, and it was those early letters

from Lady Victoria to Malcolm Bullock, where she seemed so cheeky,

so irreverent, so, you know, funny, and I just really started to

like her, and I knew she died in a hunting accident

but I didn't realise the depth of mourning.

I think Malcolm and Lady Victoria had a very happy marriage,

albeit short, that it may have been a convenient meeting,

but it wasn't a marriage of convenience,

and whatever Malcolm did in the '30s, he wasn't disloyal,

he didn't neglect her at all in the years that they were married.

You know, that description he writes to Churchill about the eight years

that they had without a cloud, and without any regrets.

How many people can say that about any relationship?

And three or four years later he is living in a very different circle,

he's... You know, he's swept up into a different world.

He almost certainly was gay

and he certainly was hanging around with a lot of gay men,

therefore has very different relationships.

You know, it happens.

Just in the space of a few days I've gone from knowing nothing

about Malcolm Bullock - not even knowing what he looked like -

from being able to read very little into the vision

I had of Lady Victoria from that portrait,

to suddenly feeling that I do know them.

I'm really relieved they were happy.

Well, that's far more about my mother's side of the family

than I expected to discover.

Now I'm heading home again to find out from my father about his family.

Now, I know that his father was a polo player

and he went to America to play polo,

and I imagine that it was because of that that he met my grandmother,

because she was American, her name was Hoagland.

I don't know anything about her family.

I think my father knows plenty about the Baldings,

but I don't know if he knows anything really about the Hoaglands.

We'll see.

Clare's father is racehorse trainer Ian Balding.

-Hey, Dad!

-Hello, girl.

-You all right?

-Yes.

-Hey, Mack-mack.

-Nice to see you.

Hi, Mack-mack. Who's the boy?

-How are you?

-All right.

-Good.

I had great fun with Mum's family.

-Did you?

-Full of scandal. Exactly.

-I know.

-Oh, good.

-So, Dad, I've got lots of questions for you.

-Oh!

-About your family.

-About my family?

-Yeah, come on.

Ian's cousin, Judith Balding, has also come to talk to Clare.

So, the Baldings were all horsey people, were they, Dad?

As far as I know, always.

And Judith's got a family tree which we'll show you.

All right. Here you go, if you have a look at that.

You can see that your grandfather, Gerald, was a horse dealer,

a polo player and a racehorse trainer.

And then if you go back up to Bert...

He was a horse dealer. William Balding's a horse dealer,

another William Balding's a horse dealer and all the way back

to Thomas Balding, early 19th-century,

saddler and dog trainer.

-Yes.

-Dog trainer.

-Dog trainer.

-There you are.

And that's Dad, Barney and Ivor.

The Balding boys.

So all in their polo kit.

Dad, of course, became a ten-goal player

but those two were both seven.

And ten is the best you can be so you're sort of handicapped

according to your ability.

Ten goals means you've got to give ten goals away to the other team.

And am I right in thinking there hasn't been a ten-goal player

-since him in England?

-No, there hasn't.

-You're right.

He's the last ten-goal player. 1939.

-That's amazing.

-It is amazing.

-Yes.

-Some photos of your dad.

-Oh, look.

-And your grandfather.

Oh, Dad, you look so serious.

He was telling me to sit up.

-Was he?

-Sit up straight, boy.

Oh, that looks so funny.

He went to America because of polo, did he?

Gerald went when he was 22 years old.

He met your mother.

Do you know how and when?

-Not really.

-She was a Hoagland. What about them?

She was a Hoagland and the Hoaglands were pretty wealthy.

Do you know how they made their money?

I have no idea.

No, I don't know.

-Anything about them.

-No.

-OK. Well, that's my job, then.

-Yeah. You can find out.

To try and find out a bit more because we know all

about the Baldings and basically they are horse dealers.

-That is clear.

-And no money.

And no money, OK.

Where should I start?

I think you should go to Rumson, probably.

To the Rumson polo club in New Jersey.

-New Jersey?

-Which is Rumson, New Jersey.

Because that's where they mostly are, or were.

Oh, great.

Clare's paternal grandfather, Gerald Balding,

met her wealthy American grandmother, Eleanor Hoagland,

in Rumson, New Jersey.

Clare's travelled to America to see what she can find out

about Eleanor's family.

It's a very odd thing knowing that you are...

A lot of me is American.

But I've never really felt American

and maybe that's to do with not really knowing much about that side

of my family so that's maybe something that changes

in the course of this investigation.

I might go back with an American accent, actually.

-IN A BAD ACCENT:

-Speaking all New York.

Coffee.

Are those...? Are those houses...? Are those Rumson houses over there?

Oh, it's nice.

Clare has come to the country club where her grandfather played polo.

She's arranged to meet up with her Aunt Gail,

her father's younger sister, who lives in America.

Aunt Gail, hello.

Hello, Clare.

-This is very smart.

-Yes, it's lovely.

And I've been having a bit of a look around because I haven't been here

-for years.

-Yeah.

-And I found some things that you might find very

interesting. Things that relate to my father, and this polo trophy

-is one of them.

-Oh, my word, it's heavy.

Ivor Balding and Gerald Balding,

so Uncle Ivor and my grandfather were in that team.

He was hired by the Rumson club to come and teach polo

and meantime he was also playing in tournaments in Long Island

and other places.

-NEWSREEL:

-Polo, society's number one sport,

draws fashionable crowds to the international field

which boasts such stars as Hedgecock, Balding and Pete Foster.

Polo drew huge crowds on the east coast of America

in the 1930s and Gerald Balding was one of its international stars.

Between the chukkas, Balding nurses an injured wrist.

He is America's second-ranking player.

An amateur sport, polo was mainly played by wealthy men

but many top teams hired players like Gerald Balding

to boost their chances in prestigious tournaments.

Champagne, gentlemen.

Have a look at these pictures.

So he was strong. I mean, look at his upper body.

He was a big fella. But everybody said that he was the most superb

horseman and he met my mum because her family lived hereabouts

and she found this greyhound dog that was running loose in Rumson,

so she picked it up and asked lots of people,

to whom does this dog belong?

And they said, well, it must be that English chap out there.

So she drove out with the dog and knocked on the door

and the door opens and out comes my father

and there's a lady in her negligee coming down the stairs behind him.

SHE LAUGHS

Of course there was. And she falls in love with him...

So my mother was standing there with this dog saying, "Is this dog yours?"

"Oh, yes, it is indeed my dog."

And that's how they met.

She was 18 and he was 32.

So what kind of family were the Hoaglands?

Her father, Joseph Hoagland, was, I would say, quite well-to-do.

They owned a big estate here in Rumson.

He was not pleased when she turned up and said, I want to marry this

much older, penniless, English polo player.

-This is the wedding, is it?

-This is the wedding, yeah.

Look at your mother.

And it was a very glamorous society wedding.

So this is Joseph Hoagland.

Joseph C Hoagland.

And he is my great-great-grandfather.

-He did have piercing blue eyes.

-Do you know how he made his money?

Well, I don't, really - I should, but I don't.

-He looks a bit dour, doesn't he?

-He looks very stern.

-Yeah.

To see if she can find out more about her great-grandfather,

Joseph Hoagland, Clare is going to do some digging of her own.

So, Joseph Hoagland, with your piercing blue eyes,

you terrifying man, who are you and what did you do?

So here we go, Joseph Hoagland, 1920 United States federal census.

So he was 30 then.

Birthplace, New York.

Homeland...

Street, Madison Avenue?

He lived on Madison Avenue.

Household members. There is Eleanor Hoagland, who was only four.

My grandmother. Let's see if we can find a bit more detail.

So this must be his passport application.

It's amazing, this, isn't it?

I can actually see the document.

Incredible.

Follow the occupation of real estate.

So he's a property magnate of some sort.

Madison Avenue.

Great. I'm going to Manhattan.

Come on!

Hi, there. Thank you very much.

Today, as in Joseph Hoagland's day,

people travel between New Jersey and the island of Manhattan by boat.

It's so impressive. I mean, just the way, as you come in across the sea,

those buildings are there like big beasts.

I so didn't think we were going to Manhattan.

I'm really thrilled.

Look at all that as real estate, as well.

As property.

When did that spring up?

When did Manhattan become what it is now?

And was Joseph Hoagland anything to do with it?

That's my question.

How does he fit in?

It's exciting, it is.

To try to answer her question,

Clare is meeting an expert on the building of Manhattan, Jason Barr.

Jason, hi. Thanks so much for coming out in the rain.

-It's great to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you, too.

Now, your mission, should you choose to accept it,

is to tell me more about my great-grandfather, Joseph Hoagland.

Because I know he had an address on Madison Avenue.

-That's right.

-But...

Well, if you look around and across the street,

you will see that is the building...

-The red-brick one?

-..that Joseph Hoagland constructed.

-Oh, nice.

-He financed and developed that project in 1920-21.

He was involved in many projects throughout Manhattan

and this was just one and he lived just to the left

of this apartment building.

This was constructed for very wealthy clientele

and I have an article here that will give you more information about it.

It starts with a 1 million apartment building.

-What year is this?

-This is from...

1920?! 1 million in 1920?

-That's correct.

-The Pentalpha Realty Corporation.

Joseph C Hoagland president, owners.

"The operation represents a total investment of 1 million."

-Wow.

-But let me say that 1 million in 1920 was a lot of money.

Your great-grandfather was very much on the vanguard, if you will,

of developers who were building sort of modern apartment buildings

to suit the new developing taste of the upper classes.

At the turn of the 20th century,

wealthy New Yorkers lived in town houses or mansions.

But after World War I,

many chose to capitalise on the rising value of land in Manhattan

by selling their homes for redevelopment

and moving to new luxury apartment buildings.

So, Aunt Gail, my Aunt Gail,

told me that they were a very wealthy family

but what I'm not clear on is, did Joseph Hoagland make the money

or did he inherit? Were they already rich?

Well, he certainly would have made money in real estate but I found a

census from 1920 that gives information about Joseph's father.

Right at the top, you can see...

Raymond Hoagland.

And the address is Fifth Avenue.

-Fifth Avenue.

-And it actually gives the number, 817.

And what is 817 Fifth Avenue now?

Well, perhaps we should walk over there and take a look.

Come on.

I want it to be really glamorous, really.

I hope all of your dreams come true on Fifth Avenue.

Fifth Avenue, where Clare's great-great-grandfather

Raymond Hoagland lived, has long been one of New York's

most exclusive addresses, where it runs along the length

of Central Park.

Here we can see 817 Fifth Avenue.

That looks more modern to me.

This building was completed in 1924, after Raymond Hoagland was here.

I happen to have a picture of what was here at the time

the Hoaglands were here. You can see we're standing at the same spot.

-They lived in that whole house?

-Yes, absolutely.

That is a very grand house.

And they are right opposite the park.

-I mean, that is a beautiful setting, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

Let's not beat around the bush - they're loaded.

-Yes, absolutely.

-They are loaded.

Fifth Avenue, 63rd Street is the centre of New York society

in the early 1900s.

So, Joseph's father, Raymond, is living here.

-Yes.

-Is he the one that made the Hoagland family fortune?

I don't think so. If you turn over this plastic sleeve,

you'll see an article here that I'd like to show you.

So this is from 1913 and it's about Joseph Hoagland.

The one who was involved in New York City real estate.

OK. "Among the most interesting and important of this spring's weddings

"is that of Ms Eleanor Sheldon Prentis and Joseph C Hoagland,

"who is named after his distinguished grandfather..."

Oh, right. Joseph Hoagland is named after his grandfather and he is

-described as distinguished.

-Yes.

-So who's he?

Like, the original Joseph Hoagland?

Perhaps if you went over to the New York Historical Society,

you could look at the directories which give information

about prominent families.

Clare has discovered that her great-grandfather Joseph Hoagland

was the grandson of another Joseph Hoagland.

It seems Joseph senior may be the source of the family fortune.

To find out if that's the case,

Clare is visiting the New York Historical Society.

She is hoping the answer might lie in city directories

for the late 19th century.

This is the Brooklyn city directory from 1878, 1879.

Thank you very much.

Let's find Hoagland.

Hoagland. So, Joseph.

Joseph Hoagland, baking powder.

Baking powder?

How would you make a fortune out of baking powder?

It's got an address here for him, 171 Dwayne.

Baking powder? I'm just really...

..really surprised.

If he made a fortune, and it's clearly a significant fortune

if his son and his grandson are living where they are living,

you kind of think someone might have mentioned that.

Oh, yes, the Hoagland family fortune,

it was built on baking powder.

An unlikely foundation, given, but clearly quite a successful one.

Clare is meeting culinary historian Linda Civitello.

-Linda, hi.

-Good morning, Clare.

I thought I'd better go full New York and have a cup of coffee.

-IMITATING NEW YORK ACCENT:

-Coffee. It's cold.

-Coffee, yeah.

It's cold, it's cold.

I was looking at my records of my great-great-great-grandfather,

Joseph Hoagland, and it said 171 Dwayne Street.

Yes, there it is.

-That's very cool.

-This building is this building.

This is where Joseph Hoagland started a culinary revolution

by manufacturing Royal Baking Powder.

Did he invent it?

Tell me, Linda.

He invented new ways to market it and to advertise it

and he made millions, tens of millions of dollars

on Royal Baking Powder.

Let's go inside, now that you've achieved your lifelong goal

-of standing in New York in winter...

-With a coffee!

..talking about baking powder.

Let's go inside and get some dynamite documents to show you.

Oh, brilliant.

So, what is baking powder, why is it so important?

I mean - I genuinely mean it - I know you're laughing at me.

Well, the very first patent for baking powder is in 1856.

It's a powder, it's a mineral that is almost tasteless,

colourless and what it does is it makes things rise

and it's an absolute culinary revolution in the 19th century

when baking powder began to replace yeast in baked goods

because before that something like this cake would be yeast-risen.

Yeast is a problem.

Yeast is a primadonna.

It's very temperamental.

Yeast will go, "Oh, no, it's too hot, I can't make that rise,"

or, "You didn't give me enough water," or,

"Go away for a couple of hours, I need to rest."

It takes hours and hours to make something with yeast

and it takes skill.

Baking powder doesn't care - hot, cold, wet, dry, you did it before,

you never did it.

Baking powder just rolls up its sleeves and comes in and

goes, "I live to leaven"

and that's what it does and it is 100% reliable.

So, how does Joseph Hoagland fit into all of this?

What does he do to take most advantage?

Well, let's put these aside and I'll...

-They can come my way!

-Oh, OK!

While I show you some documents.

This is the census from 1860 in Ohio.

Ohio? Joseph, 19.

It says he's a student.

Just a few years later he's in Fort Wayne, Indiana

and he's running a pharmacy with Mr Thomas Biddle

and his brother, Cornelius Hoagland.

Wholesale and retail druggists and dealers in paints, oils,

dyestuffs and proprietors of Royal Baking Powder.

They had come up with the name Royal.

-OK.

-And they were being successful with it and I believe Joseph was the

motive force because his brother's 12 years older than Joseph but his

-name...

-Comes before his brother, even though his brother's older.

-Gosh.

-What's going to happen here is Joseph Hoagland

and Cornelius Hoagland are going to buy out Mr Biddle, Thomas Biddle.

-Get rid of Biddle.

-That's right, bye-bye Biddle.

Biddle is going to stay in Fort Wayne with the pharmacy.

He keeps everything except...

Royal Baking Powder.

The brothers are going to take Royal and they're going to run and they're

moving back east to New York.

But Biddle therefore gets something that's already up and running

and they get the thing that they're not sure,

-I guess, whether it's going to work or not.

-They get the risk.

They're the entrepreneurs here because even at this

point they knew they wanted to be national and global

and they knew they couldn't do it from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Joseph Hoagland and his brother moved Royal Baking Powder

to New York at a time when business was undergoing a transformation

in America.

New corporations, often headed up by powerful individuals,

were forging vast national companies for the first time.

Andrew Carnegie dominated the market in steel,

JP Morgan in finance and the Rockefellers in oil.

Joseph Hoagland used similar business methods to grow Royal

and fought off competition

from hundreds of other baking powder companies by his pioneering use

of new marketing techniques.

Advertising and marketing is where your great-great-great-grandfather

really excelled.

That's... That is an actual tin?

-Yes, it is.

-Oh, my God.

They are branding themselves.

They were one of the first people to engage in branding and also

advertising. I mean, these are things that are extremely modern -

I mean, these are taught in business school now,

to, you know, have a brand name that's recognisable and memorable,

have a slogan - all of this they did.

They just knew this, again, way ahead of their time.

What was their slogan?

Well, let's see what repeats here.

Absolutely pure. Absolutely pure.

-Yeah.

-Essentially they're holding their place in the market not

necessarily because they've got superior product

but they're better at the advertising and the packaging.

They've got superior advertising.

-Right.

-Yes. And we see this also in this advertising journal,

which uses Royal as an example to other businesses

of how to market your product.

So Royal Baking Powder is advertising every principle paper in

every county seat in America.

Result - concern worth 25 million.

The equivalent today would be over 3 billion.

Royal was national and global and by the end of the 19th century

Royal was on every continent except Antarctica.

And you think, at the heart of all this is a guy

-called Joseph Hoagland.

-Genius.

-Yeah.

That conversation makes me think,

what sort qualities does a man like Joseph Hoagland have

to be able to take a risk the way he did and throw it all in

to the ingredient bowl, if you will,

that has baking powder at its centre?

I'm going to meet Professor Clifton Hood.

He's an expert on the history of wealthy New Yorkers

and I'm hoping he can tell me more about Joseph Hoagland.

Cliff, I've become a bit obsessed with Joseph C Hoagland

and what sort of a man he might have been.

-Would you like to see what he looked like?

-Yes.

-Here we go.

-Oh.

-This is him. This is from a book called King's Notable New Yorkers.

He kind of looks a sort of man you wouldn't mess with.

I think that's really true.

He is managing a massive corporation and you have to be smart and shrewd

and, in a way, ruthless to survive to get to the top as he did

and that photograph really shows that he made it to the top.

It's really pretty amazing.

Do we have any sense of whether he was a nice man or not?

Why don't we take a look at a Brooklyn Eagle article

which goes into some family disputes?

I'm now very worried, Cliff.

And if you scroll down here this is Cornelius Hoagland speaking

-about his brother, Joseph.

-"Suffice to say in a general way

"that his faculty for making uncomfortable

"everybody he comes in contact with is unsurpassed.

"There is much in his belief that he is the mainspring of all success.

"Much in a thousand other eccentricities."

So actually what he's saying is he's egotistical, he's difficult,

he's arrogant, and he's selfish.

And he's ruthless and yet when you think of what Cornelius is saying

about his brother views himself as the spring of all success,

there's a certain amount of truth to that because he was the spring

of the success of the Royal Baking Powder Company

but I think it answers your question, is he a nice person?

-He couldn't afford to be.

-Right.

You might also want to know that he dies at a very early age in 1899 and

this is actually his death notice from the Brooklyn Eagle.

Oh, so that says he leaves two sons, John A and Raymond,

and Raymond's the one I'm related to.

"Joseph Christoffel Hoagland was of Dutch extraction and a descendant of

"the early settlers in New Amsterdam."

Right and new Amsterdam is the name for early New York City.

New York City was founded in the 1620s by the Dutch

and it remains Dutch until the 1660s and by the time you get

to the 19th century, people who would claim they're descended

from the Dutch could point to that as being a point of distinction.

You're viewing yourself as descended by some of

the people who founded the country.

And would you trust that? I mean, is that definitely accurate?

Not from this document itself.

I would want to go back and have some other primary proof.

There are genealogies that I've looked at

in the New York Public Library that are best described as fiction.

So I think we have the take this with...

-A pinch of baking powder.

-A pinch of baking powder!

I've got a real picture now of Joseph Hoagland Sr.

He's a risk taker, he's a visionary,

he's a ruthless businessman, but I'm really keen to know

whether he was pretending to be Dutch

to give himself a slightly more distinguished air

or whether he really was of Dutch ancestry,

because if he was of Dutch ancestry then he made New York.

And it's all mine!

Clare's come to the Brooklyn Historical Society

to meet genealogist Roger Josslyn.

Roger, hi. I understand you're my man.

-Oh, I hope so, Clare. Nice to meet you.

-And you.

Please, let's have a seat.

So, Roger, what I've learnt so far about Joseph Hoagland -

he was fabulously wealthy, he set up the Royal Baking Powder Company.

When I looked at his death notice it said that he was of Dutch ancestry,

like, right from the early settlers of New Amsterdam.

I've no idea whether that's true or not.

Well, I'd like to show you something I think you'll really enjoy.

It's this book here.

-OK.

-Please have a look.

The History And Genealogy of the Hoagland Family in America.

-There's a whole book about them?

-There's a whole book.

-Beautiful. Oh, Hooghlande.

-Hooghlande.

So, it says, "History and genealogy of the Hoagland family in America

"from their first settlement at New Amsterdam."

He's not making it up.

Ah, published by Doctor Cornelius N Hoagland - that's his older brother.

And I think further in the book it says he actually financed

getting this done.

Now, Roger, call me cynical, but is this a source we can trust?

If he financed it and he published it, can we trust him?

Well, it turns out we can.

I have verified it through independent research,

-through many sources.

-You believe it, do you?

-Through my research.

-Really?

-Yes.

-You've double-checked this and it's true.

Triple-checked. They come from the earliest Dutch settlers to New York,

which is a big deal in America.

And not just early settlers but...

..as we can look at here, there's your Joseph.

So, he's the one we've been doing.

There was an Andrew back then, my brother's called Andrew.

Henry Hoogland and that's where the spelling changes.

-Yes.

-And then who's this?

-Sarah Rapelje.

She is your ten-times-great-grandmother

and she is the purported first European woman born

in what is now New York from the first comers.

-The very first one born here?

-Very first, she has that distinction.

And we know from good sources that this is indeed correct.

-Seriously?

-Seriously.

So the mother of New York.

-Indeed.

-Yes!

-Indeed.

-What's the Dutch for bingo?

She was first.

-She drew the straw.

-But that is, I mean, as a piece of history,

-that's amazing.

-It is amazing.

Gosh.

Well!

Now I feel Dutch!

-I wasn't expecting that.

-Yes!

I've just been e-mailing my dad and my aunt Gail to say,

"Did you know this?!"

The Hoaglands are descended from the very first European woman

to be born in New York.

It's all a lot to take in.

When we started out on this I never thought we'd end up in New York

and I certainly didn't think that anybody that I was related to

would have been so instrumental in the building of New York

and I don't just mean going right back to the first settlers -

I mean for the Royal Baking Powder Company, as well.

I'm really glad that we discovered this,

that we went on that line because it... I think, in our family,

it's been neglected, it's never really been talked about.

I'd never even heard Royal Baking Powder mentioned

and you'd think that's a pretty significant thing, isn't it?

I feel now less like a tourist.

In a way I guess I feel more connected to America

and to New York.

And maybe there's a hustle and bustle and something to it,

that deep within is significant to me.

It's a pretty cool place, isn't it?