0:00:03 > 0:00:07I've always been intrigued about, er, genealogy.
0:00:07 > 0:00:08That is genealogy, isn't it? It's not...
0:00:08 > 0:00:10What's the one we look when you're looking at rocks?
0:00:10 > 0:00:12CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:16 > 0:00:21- Alan Carr has become one of Britain's most popular entertainers. - Do you do the same as me?
0:00:21 > 0:00:27When someone rings you up in the morning and wakes you up, why do you pretend you've been up for ages?
0:00:27 > 0:00:29LAUGHTER
0:00:29 > 0:00:36His performances on stage, television and radio have made him a household name.
0:00:36 > 0:00:43I mean I'm, like, 35 this year and you start realising your place in life.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48I'm at that stage now where, oh, OK, this is happened, this has happened, this is what people think of you.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53And then you start thinking about your legacy, your heritage,
0:00:53 > 0:00:58what you'll pass on and then you start wondering what you've been given.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02"Oh, have I woken you up?" HUSKY VOICE: "No, I've been up for ages"
0:01:04 > 0:01:05I'm so intrigued just go back.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09And I know a lot of people will probably think that there'll be
0:01:09 > 0:01:15black and white pictures of people, women and men, looking like me with glasses and my teeth going back,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17you know?
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Yeah, I'd like to see where I come from because I don't know where I'm going.
0:01:59 > 0:02:06Alan's travelling north to Newcastle to explore the family history on his father's side.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I think some people, through my stand-up comedy, will know about my dad
0:02:11 > 0:02:14being a football manager.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17And my dad has sort of become a bit of a comedy foil for me
0:02:17 > 0:02:21being this northerner, this Geordie, this gruff talking...
0:02:21 > 0:02:25You know, "I like what I say and I say what I bloody well like", you know, like that?
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Oh, look, here's me with my dad there.
0:02:29 > 0:02:35The Carr family, where he comes from, people, very working class,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37everyone worked down the mines,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40but my dad wasn't a miner.
0:02:40 > 0:02:46He followed my grandad, who was a footballer and so my dad became a footballer, too.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53Well, it sort of dawned on me pretty quickly that it wasn't really for me.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58Yes, he was disappointed that I wasn't a footballer, but he wasn't Stalin, you know?
0:02:58 > 0:03:02He wasn't, like, beating me! I could just sense the disappointment.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05And when you're younger things get magnified
0:03:05 > 0:03:09and I look back, I mean, I just think he wanted me to be happy, really.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Alan wants to explore his family's connection with football.
0:03:28 > 0:03:35He's come to meet his father, Graham, at Newcastle United where he works as the Chief Scout.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Oh, my God!
0:03:44 > 0:03:48Did you think I'd ever come out of this tunnel?
0:03:48 > 0:03:49With a strip on!
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Yeah! You all right?
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Not half! Would you like to play on that pitch?
0:03:57 > 0:03:58Yeah!
0:03:59 > 0:04:01I can't believe it.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Alan wants to know more about his grandfather, Wilfred Carr.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11He was the first footballer in the family,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16playing here for Newcastle United 80 years ago.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22One thing I don't get, football came first and then the mining.
0:04:22 > 0:04:28- What happened?- Well, he was in the mines first and I think it was a great opportunity to go in,
0:04:28 > 0:04:35play football. Yeah, this is Newcastle United, 1931-32. Could you pick...
0:04:37 > 0:04:40No looking at the names at the bottom!
0:04:40 > 0:04:42No. I can recognise me own grandad, yeah. Yeah.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44That was him there, yeah.
0:04:46 > 0:04:47Did you ever see grandad play?
0:04:47 > 0:04:53No, no, not at all. No, no. Didn't quite make it here and he went to West Brom hoping for
0:04:53 > 0:04:59a better opportunity and he had a spell at West Brom where he had a knee injury and that finished him.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03And then it was back to the mines, which was the only thing to do in those days.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09He was there until he was 65, so you're talking 35 years
0:05:09 > 0:05:11in the pits.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15I mean did you get any feeling of regret or anything?
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Because I'm thinking if I was a stand-up comedian and then I suddenly
0:05:18 > 0:05:23lost me funny bone, I'd be gutted because I've had a taste of it.
0:05:23 > 0:05:24Did you find him...
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Was he a bit, like,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29not bitter, but was he sad about it?
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Well, I think possibly
0:05:31 > 0:05:34he wanted to carry on as long as he could, you know?
0:05:34 > 0:05:39So, when you finish, I think he was 27 or 28 when he actually finished,
0:05:39 > 0:05:47- and the only thing in the North East at that time was the just the mining.- Yeah, yeah.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49God, it's funny, isn't it?
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Because people don't understand the Carr knee.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54- You had a bad knee and I've got a bad knee.- Yes, yeah.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56- But mine isn't through football. - Yeah.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Typical, isn't it? I get the
0:06:00 > 0:06:02injury without doing any...
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Yours is from dancing!
0:06:04 > 0:06:08THEY LAUGH
0:06:14 > 0:06:16It's weird that hasn't happened before,
0:06:16 > 0:06:22but me and my dad just taking time to talk about my grandad, Wilf.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27It's weird. And to think that he actually played there.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31It sort of gives me a warm feeling inside to think he was...
0:06:33 > 0:06:37..that he once played on there. I feel like I'm getting closer to him.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40And you've got to understand, the grandad I knew was this man with
0:06:40 > 0:06:43a gammy leg and a stick who talked like that.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45HOARSE VOICE: "Hello, Alan".
0:06:45 > 0:06:52Like that. You can even imagine that he could even walk up those stairs, let alone run around here.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55So, it just didn't dawn on me.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00I mean, you know, this man playing football, getting a knee injury
0:07:00 > 0:07:03and how frustrating it must have been.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14In search of more information about his grandfather's career,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Alan's arranged to meet historian Robert Colls.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23They've come to the Strawberry Pub, shrine to Newcastle United.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Right, Alan. Well, I've been digging around in the archive
0:07:30 > 0:07:35for the two years Wilf played for Newcastle, 1928 to 1930.
0:07:35 > 0:07:42And here we have Newcastle United Reserves beating Walker Celtic,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45who are a local side, 3-0. And guess who scores the goals?
0:07:45 > 0:07:52"A goal scored by Carr after 32 minutes gave Newcastle a rather lucky interval lead,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57"but on the resumption the home side kept up a constant attack and Carr completed his hat trick!"
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Get in Wilf! That's great, isn't it?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03- You know what a hat trick is, don't you?- Yeah. Oh...
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Wow, a hat trick!
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Now, here we have the North East Challenge Cup.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11This time they're playing the deadly enemy, Sunderland.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13- Oh, yes, Sunderland. - Can we find Carr?
0:08:13 > 0:08:17Here you are. "With the wind in their favour on the resumption
0:08:17 > 0:08:20"it was expected that the Wearsiders would give a much better display,
0:08:20 > 0:08:27"but when Carr put them farther behind in the first two minutes they seemed to give up all hope."
0:08:27 > 0:08:29So, that's good, isn't it?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33- Can't get better.- No. We've made Sunder... My grandad...
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Look at me, "we"! I'm using "we"!
0:08:35 > 0:08:37- I'm like a proper Geordie. I'm turning Geordie!- Well, you are.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39"We made Sunderland give up hope."
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Very nice.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46It's funny, because I knew he played, but I didn't know he scored so many goals.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49I didn't even think that he would be like, not worthy, but to be
0:08:49 > 0:08:52in a newspaper and to be talked about like that.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56I remember playing football with him outside as a kid,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59because he couldn't move his leg he was hitting it with his stick, you know?
0:08:59 > 0:09:01And I'm kicking it, going, "Ooh, you're rubbish!"
0:09:01 > 0:09:04You know what I mean? And then he's done all this.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Although the history of football in England dates back to
0:09:12 > 0:09:17the Middle Ages, the modern game was invented in the 1860s.
0:09:18 > 0:09:27By the time Wilf Carr signed for Newcastle United in 1928, football had become a national obsession.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30But it hadn't always been the sport of the masses.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38Football, really, from about the 1880s was the old rock and roll.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40It comes as a craze.
0:09:40 > 0:09:47Before that, football was a middle class or quite a posh sport played at public schools.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52- Yeah.- But from the 1880s it becomes a kind of working class craze.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56There seems to be a link, especially with Wilf and I think with the
0:09:56 > 0:10:02Northumberland area, that there's a link, isn't there, between football and mining?
0:10:02 > 0:10:051882, very interesting year.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09That's the last year an old Etonian team win the FA Cup.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11It's also
0:10:11 > 0:10:19the first time we hear of a recorded Association Football match in a Northumbrian mining village.
0:10:19 > 0:10:27- So, we can say from 1882 it really builds up in Northumberland, football.- Yeah.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31And, of course, it's a team sport and miners are perfectly built for team sport.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Every colliery is a little team, really.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Yeah. Because they're all fit. They must be so fit.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38They're fit and strong and they're competitive.
0:10:38 > 0:10:47So, generations of North East men, miners included, learnt that this was their game, their passion.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56For the coal miners of the North East, football was part of everyday life.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01By the 1920s, each colliery had its own team
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and professional clubs like Newcastle United
0:11:04 > 0:11:09routinely exploited this local pool of athletic young men.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14For these miners, football was the only
0:11:14 > 0:11:18viable alternative to a dangerous and punishing life in the pits.
0:11:20 > 0:11:26Dozens of professional footballers came from the mining villages of Northumbria,
0:11:26 > 0:11:32including Newcastle United's most famous goal scorer, Jackie Milburn,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and England's World Cup winning brothers, Bobby and Jack Charlton.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41I'm assuming,
0:11:41 > 0:11:48- now that we live in this world where footballers are surviving on 200 grand a week, I mean...- Poor things!
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Yeah, I know, my heart bleeds!
0:11:50 > 0:11:53He wouldn't
0:11:53 > 0:11:55be on anything near that, would he?
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Well, if you want to know about footballers' wages in the '20s,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04the best rule of thumb, Alan, is to take a working man's wage and roughly double it.
0:12:04 > 0:12:11George Orwell, in the '30s, looks at miners' pay stubs and they're earning around £2 to £3 a week.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15So, Wilf was probably earning about four to six,
0:12:15 > 0:12:20maybe £8 a week in the very short career he had.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24- Yeah.- And if you asked him, if he was sitting there now,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27and you said, "What was it like, Wilf?", he'd say, "Great.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31"I was earning twice the average and I was a star."
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Just hearing all this,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40I just feel the frustration on my grandad's side when he got that knee injury.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43It must have been gutting.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45What would happen then, if his knee...
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Did the money just stop?
0:12:47 > 0:12:49I suppose he wasn't going to get any,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53you know, any money or compensation or anything.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55- Who'd want a footballer with a bad knee?- I know.
0:12:55 > 0:13:02It's true that when he got his injury, his footballing career and his stardom would be cut dead.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07- Yeah, yeah.- Dead. But, there again, this is a man who is a coal miner.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12- He knows about being injured suddenly.- Yeah.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17He probably knows men who've had their backs broken or had been killed, Alan.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22This is a time when 700 coal miners were killed every year.
0:13:22 > 0:13:28A battalion of the British Army, equivalent, is being killed every year in the 1920s in the pits.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32- Yeah.- So, Wilf would know all about sudden ends.- Yeah.
0:13:33 > 0:13:40Wilf Carr's short-lived football career ended when he was just 25.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47He had no choice but to return to the pits where he saw out the rest of his working life.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53But he did see his own son, Alan's father, Graham,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58enjoy a long and successful career in professional football.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06Such a shame, to have a taste of what it's like and then to have it taken away.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Because if he was rubbish at football and he was just down the pits anyway,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13you know? But it's almost sadder that he's had
0:14:13 > 0:14:18a taste of this, whoo, scoring the hat tricks and the goals and everyone cheering, and the next thing you know
0:14:18 > 0:14:23he's filling a tub up full of coal for eight hours a day underground.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26The taste of it just makes that a little bit sadder.
0:14:30 > 0:14:37Before Alan's grandfather Wilf, the Carrs had worked in the same pit in Northumbria for generations.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45But the family history on Alan's maternal side is not so straightforward.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53I'm going to go and see my mum and do my mum's side of the family.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56But with my mum's, it is a genuine mystery.
0:14:56 > 0:15:03After my grandad Carter, which is her dad, my grandad, it stops.
0:15:03 > 0:15:10And I think that there was talk in the family of a name change and no-one can ever clarify anything.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14I love a mystery and...
0:15:14 > 0:15:19I smell a rat in the Carter family, in the best possible sense!
0:15:24 > 0:15:30Alan's come to his parents' house in Northampton, where he grew up, to talk to his mother.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Hello?
0:15:35 > 0:15:38It's your son, Alan.
0:15:38 > 0:15:39- Hello!- Hello.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41- Ahh...- Had a nice drive up?
0:15:41 > 0:15:43- Yeah. It was good, yeah.- Good.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45- Hello, Alan.- Hello.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48- Nice to see you. - Yeah. Nice day for it, isn't it?
0:15:48 > 0:15:49It is, lovely. Lovely.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Right. I've done you, your family, now I've got to do you.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55- Right.- What's in store?
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Alan wants to know about his mother's family,
0:15:58 > 0:16:05the Carters, beginning with his grandfather, Cyril Carter, who died when Alan was a child.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08Now this is him
0:16:08 > 0:16:10- in the Navy.- Wow!
0:16:13 > 0:16:14You're going to have to put this in a frame, aren't you?
0:16:14 > 0:16:17I mean it's just a great picture.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19- I will, yeah. - I've never seen him in his prime.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23- No, no.- And that's the only photo I've got, isn't it?- Of you and him?
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Me and him, yeah, yeah.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Yeah.
0:16:27 > 0:16:34So, what do you know about my grandad, your dad, Cyril's mum and dad? Do you know anything at all?
0:16:34 > 0:16:37- Well, I've done a little bit of research.- Yeah.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41And his mum's name was Maria Annie Wayman.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45And she'd been married before, before she met my grandad.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50In 1905 she married Thomas Laing
0:16:50 > 0:16:54and she had a son called Tom Laing.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59But when she left Thomas Laing, I do not know.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Whether she was divorced, don't know.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04What about the dad?
0:17:04 > 0:17:06About Cyril's dad?
0:17:06 > 0:17:11Well, I know his name was Henry Carter, but when Mum,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14my mum, first met the family, she said the name was Mercer.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17So, there's a name change somewhere.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20But why would you change your name?
0:17:20 > 0:17:21I don't know.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25So, are there any records of Henry marrying Maria?
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Not that I've found, no.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32So, what happened to Thomas Laing, the first husband, did he die?
0:17:32 > 0:17:34We don't know.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37OK, right.
0:17:37 > 0:17:43- So, Maria Annie Wayman, my great grandma...- Yes.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Yeah? Marries Thomas Laing
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and then for some reason, we don't know why,
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Maria meets Henry Carter slash Mercer...
0:17:55 > 0:17:58..and then they have my grandad, Cyril.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00Plus 12 others.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Plus 12 others.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Not forgetting Tom Laing, the half brother that she had with Thomas Laing.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Yeah.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09I think I need a drink.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12That's a lot of information.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15- You know Cyril's siblings?- Yes.
0:18:15 > 0:18:16Are any of them still alive?
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Not that I know of.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Oh.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Alan's grandfather, Cyril,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31was one of 12 children born to Henry Carter and Maria Annie Wayman.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Although his mother has lost touch with the Carter family,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49Alan has discovered that his grandfather's youngest sibling is alive and well.
0:18:52 > 0:18:59Alan's tracked down his great aunt Doreen, still living in Crayford, Kent, where she was born and raised.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06She's invited Alan to a Carter family reunion.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Hello!
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Hello, my long lost family!
0:19:14 > 0:19:16I'm here, I'm here!
0:19:16 > 0:19:17CHEERING
0:19:17 > 0:19:20So, who's Doreen? Who's Doreen?
0:19:20 > 0:19:22- I am.- Oh! Ahh.
0:19:24 > 0:19:25How are you?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Yeah, you're my great aunt!
0:19:28 > 0:19:30- Yeah, I know. - I've never met you before.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Oh, I've met you when you was like that.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Really? Was I as good looking then as I am now?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39- Oh, you're beautiful, you are. - But before the teeth came through.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43- I'll tell you what, you look much more good looking than on the telly. - Oh!
0:19:43 > 0:19:45- I think so.- I'll come here again.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50You look lovely, very pretty.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Alan hopes that Doreen might know more about his great grandparents
0:19:54 > 0:19:59and the mystery of the Carter Mercer name change.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01That's my mother.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03- Oh, there she is.- Yeah.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05So, that's my great grandmother.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08- That's right. - Wow! She's pretty, isn't she?
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Yeah. She was a lovely woman.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15- Do you know where your mother comes from? Where she originates from?- Yes.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17I think it was Dulwich somewhere.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19- Dulwich?- Dulwich. I think so, yeah.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23- But they both came from that area. - Dulwich, yeah, yeah.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28- Either Bermondsey or Camberwell, they come from that area.- Yeah.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34So where's Henry, my great grandad?
0:20:34 > 0:20:37There you are. That's him there, Richard.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40I thought he was called Henry.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42- So, obviously...- Yeah.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45- It is Richard Henry.- Richard. But did he like people to call him Henry?
0:20:45 > 0:20:47No, I didn't think so.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51- He always signed his name, if he had to, Richard.- Yeah.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55His death certificate is in Richard Henry.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Yeah. It's just that my mum always used to say, "Oh, Henry! It's Henry!"
0:20:59 > 0:21:01That's why I've got it in my head.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Yeah. Oh, dear.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- Do you know anything about this surname?- No.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Mercer. Mercer and then Carter and...
0:21:10 > 0:21:18The only thing I said is maybe they weren't married and maybe this is why he changed his name.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- Yeah.- Because she had a husband that was named Laing.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I heard, Thomas Laing.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- That's right.- Yeah.
0:21:25 > 0:21:26Thomas Laing.
0:21:26 > 0:21:32And if they weren't married, they've come down to Crayford together,
0:21:32 > 0:21:38it could have been to get away from Mr Laing, couldn't it be?
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Oh, yes. Yeah. Start a new life.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44All my nephews think this.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46Did your mum ever talk about that or anything?
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Never. Never. And nor did my dad.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52- Oh, right.- Never said a word.
0:21:52 > 0:21:58- So, so far we've got Richard coming down, Richard Henry coming down... - With Anne Marie.- Anne Marie.
0:21:58 > 0:22:05And then they started a family which includes you, Cyril, Dolly, Wally, everyone, yeah, yeah.
0:22:05 > 0:22:06That's right, yeah, yeah.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10- But you don't know where this Mercer comes from?- No, I do not know.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12If you find out, Alan...
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Oh, well, you haven't seen the last of me!
0:22:15 > 0:22:16I'll be back. I'll be back.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Well, I've gone to find out about Henry
0:22:27 > 0:22:34Carter and I've found out through Doreen that he was called Richard to everyone.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39It was on his death certificate. Even Cyril, my grandad, called him Richard.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41So that's a bit weird.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43So, I need to find out about that.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46And also this Mercer Carter thing.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51Even Doreen didn't know and none of them talked about it.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56So, I've gone looking for answers and actually I've found more questions.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05Alan's great grandparents, Henry and Maria, were both born and raised in London.
0:23:05 > 0:23:12According to Doreen, they moved away to Crayford, Kent, shortly after they got together.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24Alan's returned to south London,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28- where his great grandparents grew up.- Hello.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30- Hello, June. - Hello, Alan, nice to meet you.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35- All right?- Yes, I'm fine, thank you. - He's asked historian June Balshaw
0:23:35 > 0:23:41to find any official records that might help him piece together their lives here.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47So, I've got a series of certificates here that I've found.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50The first one is the birth certificate
0:23:50 > 0:23:52of Henry Carter.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Where's the Richard come from?
0:23:55 > 0:23:56Richard?
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Because everyone calls him Richard
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Henry, and I, I've looked there... Oh, that's...
0:24:03 > 0:24:08It could be that that was a name that he used later on or it could be it was a middle name.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11- They didn't always get recorded on the birth certificate.- Oh, OK.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15- But, certainly, when he was born he was put down as Henry.- Yeah.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20So, now I'm going to show you a marriage certificate and this is
0:24:20 > 0:24:25the marriage certificate of Thomas Laing and Maria Annie Wayman.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29- Yeah.- They marry in October, 1905
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and then we can see what their ages are here.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35An 11-year difference.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38- Is that quite a big...? - It's quite a big gap.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Thomas is 30, Maria's 19.
0:24:40 > 0:24:46Now, the next certificate I have is July, 1906.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Almost nine months to the day after they're married
0:24:50 > 0:24:56Maria and Thomas have their first child and his name is...
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Thomas Laing, after the dad. Yes.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05And then in April 1908 they have a second child.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11So, where does Henry, my great...
0:25:11 > 0:25:13my great grandad stand in all this?
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Well, let's move forward to the census of 1911
0:25:18 > 0:25:23- and a rather different picture begins to emerge.- Oh, OK.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25Here we have
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Henry Carter
0:25:27 > 0:25:29- aged 24.- Yeah.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31- Single.- Yeah.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35And boarding in his house is Annie Laing.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Oh, I see! They're getting closer, they're getting closer.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44It recognises that she has two children and what I have been
0:25:44 > 0:25:50able to find is that they are on the census living with her father.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55- Yeah.- So, the boys are safe and well, but they're not with her, they're with her father.- Yeah.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And there's no sign of Thomas Laing.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01So, we don't know why Maria and Thomas split up.
0:26:01 > 0:26:07It could be that Maria had met Henry and decided that he was the one for her.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12- Or it could be that she had a very difficult time with Thomas.- Yeah.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17But what this signals is the start of Annie, as she's calling herself here,
0:26:17 > 0:26:23giving birth to quite a lot of children with Henry Carter.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28- Yeah.- And, in fact, Annie gives birth to several sets of twins.
0:26:28 > 0:26:36- OK.- So, twins are born in 1916 and he is now, bearing in mind this
0:26:36 > 0:26:40is during the First World War, he's now a labourer at Vickers.
0:26:40 > 0:26:46- Vickers?- Which was based at Crayford and during the First World War they built...- Built armaments.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48- They did, and they built guns. - Yeah, yeah.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53So, they've moved away from where they were living, away from south London to Crayford.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It's not a million miles away, but it's certainly enough to
0:26:56 > 0:27:01- put some distance between themselves and the past.- Right. OK.
0:27:01 > 0:27:09Finally, July 1938, when they've been together for a good few years,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13and they're both 51 years old, Maria and Henry get married.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19- Ah! That's closed the door after the horse as bolted, isn't it really? - It is.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24- But it also begs the question, why did they wait so long?- Yeah.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Now, this is the first time she's putting herself down as a widow.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33- Now that would suggest that Thomas Laing...- Has died. - ..has died.
0:27:33 > 0:27:40I mean, that's great about that marriage certificate, because Doreen didn't even know.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42She couldn't even find a marriage certificate.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48But I just love the way it feels like they're doing the right thing.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Doreen planted the seed yesterday that maybe they had changed their
0:27:51 > 0:27:55names and moved to Crayford to escape the Laings.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Do you reckon they could have been on the run from Thomas Laing?
0:27:59 > 0:28:05If it was the case that they wanted to escape from Thomas Laing,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09then there are a number of options open to them, which could involve
0:28:09 > 0:28:13name changes, could involve the moving to a new area.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18But what I would suggest you need to do next is see what you can find out about Henry.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Because we know from the birth certificates of some of the children
0:28:22 > 0:28:27that he was working at Vickers during the war, but was he there during the whole of the war?
0:28:27 > 0:28:31We don't know. And that's the direction I would head in next if I were you.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Right, OK, yeah. Okey doke, I will.
0:28:43 > 0:28:49I mean, obviously, I can only speculate so much because there are big gaping holes in it, but
0:28:49 > 0:28:53maybe Thomas Laing was a bit of a drifter. She fell in love with Henry.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55They came away to Crayford.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00They changed their name and lived happily ever after with, you know...
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Well, they must of because they had about 12 kids!
0:29:05 > 0:29:11Yeah. I don't know, maybe I'm biased because I've met with the Carters now and I'm, like, one of them.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Maybe I am a bit more, "He can't do no wrong, Henry Carter."
0:29:16 > 0:29:23It just seems a bit weird, doesn't it, leaving and taking the kids with you?
0:29:27 > 0:29:34Although Alan knows that his great grandfather was at home working in Crayford in 1916, he doesn't know
0:29:34 > 0:29:39what he was doing during the rest of the First World War.
0:29:42 > 0:29:48He's asked Nigel Steel from the Imperial War Museum to help him find out more.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52They're meeting at the historic home of the Royal Artillery in Woolwich
0:29:52 > 0:29:55to view Henry Carter's Service Record.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Nigel, what have we got here?
0:30:01 > 0:30:06This is the attestation form, this is where he signals his willingness to become a soldier.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10He's signing up short service, for the duration of the war.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14So, basically, at the age of 28 he did, he joined the Army,
0:30:14 > 0:30:16he did what he thought was best for Britain.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Yeah. He joins up and one of the interesting things,
0:30:19 > 0:30:21if you come back to the, to the date, 28th April,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24- the war's really just beginning to warm up.- Yeah.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Because from a historical point of view, it has been quiet over wintertime.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31And so when he enlisted, he might have thought it was reasonably quiet
0:30:31 > 0:30:34- and had this idea that the war's running to an end.- Yeah.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38- But within a few weeks he'd have realised that there was major stuff going on.- Yeah.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42- The first big battles were all rolling out and it's kicking off with a new campaign season.- Yeah.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50In the first two years of World War One,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53before the introduction of conscription in 1916,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57the War Secretary, Lord Kitchener,
0:30:57 > 0:31:00spearheaded a major recruitment campaign,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03urging every man to do his bit for King and Country.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09When Henry Carter enlisted in April, 1915,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11at the tail end of this patriotic surge,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16many believed that the worst of the war was already over.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22So what did he do in the war?
0:31:22 > 0:31:28Well, from these documents, we know that he becomes a driver
0:31:28 > 0:31:33in the Divisional Ammunition Column, um, Field Artillery Camberwell.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37What's unusual about Camberwell is it formed its own Artillery Unit
0:31:37 > 0:31:41and they managed to recruit between January and June enough people
0:31:41 > 0:31:43to create a whole of an artillery brigade.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46So, basically, a group of people in Camberwell said,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48- "Right, let's do our bit." - That's right.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51And Henry's gone, "Yeah, I'll...yeah, count me in, I'll do it, too."
0:31:51 > 0:31:56That's what it would appear to be, because he's right in the middle at this recruiting period
0:31:56 > 0:31:58and the Camberwell Artillery
0:31:58 > 0:32:00have a farewell parade
0:32:00 > 0:32:02through the streets of Dulwich and Camberwell.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08Oh, look!
0:32:08 > 0:32:11This is, we have every reason to think,
0:32:11 > 0:32:17- that Henry would have driven in his wagon through Camberwell as part of 4,300 Officers and men.- Yeah.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20- Parade through Camberwell. - So, and that would have fired him up,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23- walking along all these places where he'd...- I'd imagine it was.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27To have gone to the trouble of producing all this and having it listed,
0:32:27 > 0:32:29this would have been a grand day. And I would have thought
0:32:29 > 0:32:34it's through something like this that you really can feel that strong sense of civic pride.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37- Yeah.- These are our men, these are our boys,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39- doing us proud and going off to the front.- Yeah.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Wonderful.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56The Camberwell Artillery was made up of men who'd volunteered
0:32:56 > 0:32:59to fight alongside their friends and neighbours
0:32:59 > 0:33:01in a specially-created local regiment.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07- This was one of the so-called Pals Battalions
0:33:07 > 0:33:10that helped make up Lord Kitchener's new army.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14Introduced in 1914,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18predominantly in the industrial towns and cities of the north,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21over 50 of these Pals Battalions were formed,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25comprising around 2.5 million men.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Men who would form the backbone
0:33:29 > 0:33:32of the British fighting force on the Western front.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39The Camberwell Artillery is drawn in to the 33rd Division.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41Um, and 33rd Division,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45we can see if you look at the published history of the 33rd Division,
0:33:45 > 0:33:48from the end of 1915 onwards,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52becomes a very kind of hard-fighting battle division.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56It's involved in some of the key stages of the war,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58- the bits that people will know about.- Yeah.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01I'm not like you, I don't know about World War One, I'm not a specialist,
0:34:01 > 0:34:07but Battle of the Somme, even I know how grim, grim and devastating that was.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Then we go forward into the Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14- people would know... - That's, that's...- Go through that.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Then in 1918, they stand firm when the Germans attack up in Flanders,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20and then they're involved in the final phase.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And the 33rd Division ends the war with a total of casualties
0:34:24 > 0:34:29- of over 37,000. That's killed, wounded, missing, everything, which is...- 37,000!
0:34:29 > 0:34:3137,000.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Have you got any more information on him or...this Henry?
0:34:35 > 0:34:37We do, actually. It's a very interesting file.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41- What we've got here is a conduct sheet.- OK.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45OK. And so the first thing happens at the beginning of June, 1915.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48- What happens is he goes absent without leave.- Oh.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Only for a day in this one. So you can see
0:34:52 > 0:34:55from 8th June through to 9th June. And this isn't...
0:34:55 > 0:35:00- this happens to a lot of people, I think.- Yeah.- He just overstays and gets drunk, oversleeps,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04whatever it would be, they don't treat it very badly. But then, 3rd August,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08which is exactly the period where the artillery units from Camberwell
0:35:08 > 0:35:12are all going on nightly trains down to Salisbury Plain to get their...
0:35:12 > 0:35:17- start cranking up, get their proper guns, does it again.- Oh, no!
0:35:17 > 0:35:20So he, he stays at home, er, for another 24 hours.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24- But what is interesting, on 3rd September...- Yeah.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27..he obviously is back home, he's gone back to Wakeley Street
0:35:27 > 0:35:29on some leave, and it gets a little bit more serious
0:35:29 > 0:35:33because you can see, after four days,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36he still hasn't turned back up again.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39- He doesn't want to go, does he? - He doesn't want to go.
0:35:39 > 0:35:45- He doesn't want to come back again. I think he's beginning to think... - "This maybe isn't for me", yeah.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49And so on 13th September, he leaves again,
0:35:49 > 0:35:50and he doesn't come back.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Oh, no.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55So they hold the Court of Inquiry a month later
0:35:55 > 0:35:58and you can see that what then effectively becomes,
0:35:58 > 0:35:59if you come down to here,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02- is he's deserted.- Oh, no.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05So classified as a deserter on 13th September, 1915.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Henry Carter joined up in April 1915.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Although the year had begun quietly,
0:36:15 > 0:36:20his enlistment coincided with the beginning of a series of devastating battles,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24starting with the Second Battle of Ypres.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27By the time Henry deserted in September,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31it was clear that this was going to be a long and costly conflict.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37You can see in some of the rest of these papers here,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40is they're looking through, recording how much pay he's not going to get.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45- Mm.- How much he'd earned. "Unable to find..." They can't find his wife.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48They tried his mother. They're looking for him here.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Months later, it's quite true, this isn't a mistake,
0:36:50 > 0:36:55- he's not overstayed his leave by this time.- What does that say? Can I just see that?
0:36:55 > 0:37:00"Reserve...The last address held by...of his wife is at 58 Wakeley Road."
0:37:00 > 0:37:04So am I right in thinking they've turned up there and the wife's not there?
0:37:04 > 0:37:05Anna Marie Wayman has gone?
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Everybody's gone.
0:37:08 > 0:37:09Oh.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Only his mother is still at home
0:37:11 > 0:37:14and she doesn't know where they've gone.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16You see, I'm torn now, because, you know,
0:37:16 > 0:37:19when you said deserter, I was a bit embarrassed and that.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24- But then when you told me that statistic of the 33rd Division.- Yeah.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27You might think, "Oh, you coward, you let down your country."
0:37:27 > 0:37:31But then you could see, "You know what? You weren't."
0:37:31 > 0:37:33You know, yeah, "You're not stupid."
0:37:33 > 0:37:36He was clever enough to figure out that if he was going to do it,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39he needs to do it now, whilst they're still at home,
0:37:39 > 0:37:44while he can sort it out, because if he waited six months and he got to France,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46there's no way he could have done this.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56OK, I'm going to be honest with you.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58Henry Carter in a....
0:37:58 > 0:38:03"Your Country Needs You" kind of thing is... It's embarrassing.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05You know, he's a deserter.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10But I can't help thinking of him in a human sense, you know.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13He's got the wife at home, you know,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16he's got those two kids, you know,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20and, in a way, it was cowardly but in a way it was brave.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24It's obvious now that he wasn't escaping the first husband.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26He was actually escaping the First World War,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30that's why the name changed and that's why they went to Crayford
0:38:30 > 0:38:32and changed their name.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36I think the Mercers, I think that's becoming really clear now.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Um, so in a way, Thomas Laing's...
0:38:39 > 0:38:42we've got bigger fish to fry now, he's a deserter.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Hello, Mum, it's me, Alan.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53Oh, God, well I...
0:38:53 > 0:38:56I spoke to this artillery expert,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59he's told me so much about Henry Carter you won't believe.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05Henry's desertion is a family secret
0:39:05 > 0:39:09that has remained hidden for generations.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11..he just disappears.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Well, that's it, he's gone.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17He's just gone. He's deserted.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22And they go round to Anna Marie Wayman with the kids, to the address -
0:39:22 > 0:39:24they've gone, too.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27They've all gone.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31And, I mean, the man was saying about, "Oh, the 33rd Battalion,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34"they fought in the Somme, they fought in the Battle of Arras,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37"and Ypres.." and I'm, and I'm like, "Oh, my God!"
0:39:37 > 0:39:40And he said that like 30,000 people died.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43And I'm like, "Oh, my God, so he's a survivor."
0:39:43 > 0:39:46And then I said to him, "No wonder he bloomin' survived the Somme,"
0:39:46 > 0:39:47he weren't even there!
0:39:50 > 0:39:53I know, I know. But do you know what, Mum,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56I said if he had gone, he would have been dead and we wouldn't be here.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02Over half of the five million British men who joined up
0:40:02 > 0:40:07during World War One were wounded or killed in action.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13A choice to desert may have saved Henry's life.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16But it also made him a wanted man.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26Alan wants to know what happened to his great-grandfather next.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33He's visiting Winchester's Military Museums,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36home to the archive of the Army Legal Services.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Alan's meeting historian Edward Madigan.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44I found out yesterday
0:40:44 > 0:40:48that my great-grandad Henry Carter was a deserter.
0:40:50 > 0:40:56What...what are the implications... What would his life be like if you deserted?
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Would you be stigmatised? Would people be after you?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Well, your great-grandfather's case is fascinating.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05We know quite a bit about men who deserted at the front.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08So on the Western Front or one of the other theatres of war
0:41:08 > 0:41:12and what happened to them. There's been a lot of attention from historians and the press
0:41:12 > 0:41:16and many of them were executed. So we're quite familiar with all of this.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Domestic desertion, which was the case of your great-grandfather,
0:41:19 > 0:41:21we know a lot less about that.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25So he went missing on September 13th, 1915.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29The very next day, his name appears in the Police Gazette.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33- H Carter.- Yeah. - That's your great-grandfather there.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36This would have been circulated to police constables,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40um, to give lists of men who were on the run.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44He appears again in the Police Gazette a few weeks later,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47see him here, on the second page.
0:41:47 > 0:41:48- Henry Carter.- Yeah.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53And for men who went on the run, life was tough.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56I mean, every police constable, every military policeman in the land
0:41:56 > 0:41:59- was constantly on the look-out for deserters.- Yeah.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01So any men acting suspiciously were liable to be...
0:42:01 > 0:42:05And I'm assuming, just by the fact of being a man,
0:42:05 > 0:42:10people are like, "Why aren't you fighting the war?" Was that the case?
0:42:10 > 0:42:13That's a good point, and especially after conscription was introduced.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16At that stage, from early 1916 onwards, theoretically,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19- every young man in the country, and Henry was only 28...- Yeah.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22- ..um, had to be either fighting in uniform...- Yeah.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26- ..or doing some sort of specific war work.- Yeah, yeah.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33By May, 1916, although some skilled workers were exempt,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37conscription had been introduced for all able-bodied men
0:42:37 > 0:42:40between the ages of 18 and 41...
0:42:42 > 0:42:46..making life increasingly difficult for deserters like Henry Carter.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54What kind of punishment would be dished out to him if he got caught?
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Well, desertion was an extremely serious offence during the First World War,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00and military justice,
0:43:00 > 0:43:06even by the standards of the time, um, was very harsh and unforgiving.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10The maximum penalty for desertion in wartime was death,
0:43:10 > 0:43:14and you can see it's very clear here in this Book of Regulations.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18"Deserting the service, maximum punishment - death."
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Crucially, however, he didn't desert at the front.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Not in active service. He was at home, so he was a domestic deserter.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27And the situation there was quite different.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32In this case, Henry, if he was caught, he would have gone before a District Court Martial.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Now, a District Court Martial was empowered really only
0:43:35 > 0:43:38to sentence men to two years in prison with hard labour.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41So, still quite serious, but not a capital offence.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45- So not a question of life and death. - Phew, two years hard labour.- Tough.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48- Absolutely.- Oh, dear!
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Are you always... Is it once a deserter, always a deserter?
0:43:51 > 0:43:53Was there ever an amnesty?
0:43:53 > 0:43:55Or would Henry Carter have that for all his life,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57looking over his shoulder?
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Well, in the couple of years after the war, 1919/1920,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03deserters were still very actively pursued.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06There's a debate in the House of Commons in 1923
0:44:06 > 0:44:11where they raised this issue about should we introduce an amnesty for wartime deserters.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14They don't. Deserter, that tag of deserter,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17really would have stayed with him for the rest of his life.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23During World War One,
0:44:23 > 0:44:28around 50,000 men were officially listed as deserting,
0:44:28 > 0:44:30or going absent without leave,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33abroad and at home,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35where every civil and military policeman
0:44:35 > 0:44:38would have been constantly on the look-out.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42It's sort of, um,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45cos you sort of get told at school that everyone's like,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49"Yeah, let's fight, let's fight." And it's almost quite...
0:44:49 > 0:44:52I sort of warm to him a bit cos he maybe had the know-how
0:44:52 > 0:44:56to go, "Wait a minute, this isn't all, yeah, let's fight for our country."
0:44:56 > 0:45:01He sort of had a reality check. I mean would that...
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Were people walking blindly into a war or were people going,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08"This isn't going to be over by Christmas.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12"We're going to come back maimed or..." Is that true?
0:45:12 > 0:45:16- Well, this is what makes these cases so fascinating.- Yeah.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18- Millions of men volunteered.- Yeah.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21But, obviously, and this case really proves this,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23- significant numbers of men...- Yeah.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25..joined up in haste or were conscripted later on,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29- and decided very quickly that army life wasn't for them.- Yeah. Yeah.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32Now, I've got some interesting press reports here.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36The detailed cases of men who were tried for domestic desertion.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39And there's some really fascinating detail in this.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42"Confession of an alleged deserter."
0:45:44 > 0:45:48"The truth is I'm not entitled to the Victoria Cross.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51"The one I've been wearing I bought out of a curiosity shop
0:45:51 > 0:45:54"for 30 shilling about a fortnight ago.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58"I have never been in France and the statement made by me
0:45:58 > 0:46:04"to the effect that I was presented with the Victoria Cross by King George in France is untrue."
0:46:04 > 0:46:08- He's basically a pathological liar. - Yeah, he's a... He's a villain, all right.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11- Another interesting case. - Oh, dear!
0:46:11 > 0:46:14"Deserter disguised as a woman."
0:46:14 > 0:46:17- Is this for real? - I'm afraid so, yeah.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20"The police sergeant touching one of the woman's curls
0:46:20 > 0:46:25"found that it came away in his hand." Oh, dear!
0:46:25 > 0:46:31"The 'woman' thereupon confessed to being a man and to attempt to desert.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36"He said his wife had cut off some of her hair so that he could wear it."
0:46:36 > 0:46:41I know my great-grandad deserted but he never resorted to dressing up as a woman.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45- Well, at least you have that, OK. - At least I've got that.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49But you know I was laughing about this deserter disguised as a woman,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52I know it's quite comical now...
0:46:52 > 0:46:54- but how desperate.- Mm.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57And like with the woman helping, you know, his wife helping him.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01- The wife doesn't want him to go to war.- No, no.- She wants him there.
0:47:01 > 0:47:07There's a story in the Carter family that Henry changed his name.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13Would that be something a deserter would do? Was it easy to do?
0:47:13 > 0:47:15- Would that makes sense?- Yeah.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19- I mean this was a really common tactic, changing your name, assuming an alias.- OK.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22It was something deserters did.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24And criminals generally did all the time.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28Establishing a new life for yourself was much easier in 1915
0:47:28 > 0:47:30- and 1916 than it would be today. - Yeah.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34The average citizen didn't really leave much of a paper trail that you could trace him by.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37So I think if Henry managed to change his name,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41- to get outside London and establish a new life for himself...- Yeah.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43..once he'd done that, if he kept a low profile,
0:47:43 > 0:47:46his chances of remaining at large and not being caught
0:47:46 > 0:47:49- were reasonably good.- OK.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Henry Carter's desertion may have provided a motive
0:47:58 > 0:48:00for his alleged name change.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05But Alan has kept copies of all the documents he's seen so far.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10And looking through the birth certificates of his great-grandfather's children,
0:48:10 > 0:48:12he's not convinced.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16I understand with someone on the run,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20and being a wanted man, I've seen the Police Gazette thing, I mean, he was a wanted man,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23I can understand him changing his name, calling it Mercers,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25and like the man said, you know,
0:48:25 > 0:48:28having an alias was common in those days.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32My mum said, "He was called a Mercer and all these people called Mercer."
0:48:32 > 0:48:36However, we look at these birth certificates,
0:48:36 > 0:48:41you know, there's nearly something every year here and he's always called Henry Carter
0:48:41 > 0:48:47like 1914, 1916, 1916, 19...all through the war he's still calling himself Henry Carter, so...
0:48:47 > 0:48:51I understand why you would change your name
0:48:51 > 0:48:53but I can't see any proof that he did.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Alan knows that by 1916,
0:49:05 > 0:49:10his great-grandparents were living in Crayford in Kent.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15He's come to the Centre for Kentish Studies
0:49:15 > 0:49:17where he's asked historian Sandra Dunster
0:49:17 > 0:49:23to help him resolve the story of his great-grandfather's name change.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28- I've got Henry here and he's on the run.- OK.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31- He's deserted.- Right. - And he's taken his family with him.
0:49:31 > 0:49:36And there is talk in the Carter family of a name change,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38- he changed his name to Mercer.- Right.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41And I've got all these documents here
0:49:41 > 0:49:46and some of them are nearly every year, and he's always Henry Carter.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48I'm just thinking why, if you're on the run,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51why would you put your name and address on the birth certificate?
0:49:51 > 0:49:55He's not...he's not hiding it very well, in fact he's being open about it,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58which I wouldn't expect from someone who was on the run.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02I think it's a question of looking at how the police might have gone to try and find somebody.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06- Yeah.- They're unlikely to have looked through every single birth certificate,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10death certificate, marriage certificate that was ever produced.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12- So that sounds ridiculous. Why? - Well, I think,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16you have to think about the number of certificates that are produced,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20the number of children that are born in, what, the whole of south London,
0:50:20 > 0:50:24North Kent, that area, he could be anywhere in the country.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27They're more likely to look at things like rent books,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30- electoral registers and so on.- Yeah.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Long before computerised records, the authorities' strategy
0:50:37 > 0:50:40for tracking down deserters
0:50:40 > 0:50:43focused on records relating to everyday life.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Have you got anything at all? Do you know where he was living?
0:50:48 > 0:50:49I've got it here.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Should be here somewhere.
0:50:52 > 0:50:59- In 1916, he arrives at Star Hill in Crayford.- OK.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02- And he's working at Vickers.- Right.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04As a labourer.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10- In 1919, he's in 58 Barnes Cray Walk, Crayford.- OK.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Well, in that case, what we could do is have a look at the electoral register
0:51:14 > 0:51:17- or the electoral rolls for that...that address.- Yeah.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20And see who's living at that address at that time.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23- That's a good idea, yeah. - And, and see if we can do that.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27Now, I've marked the page here,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31and you can see here we have the Parliamentary Parish of Crayford.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33- Yeah.- This is Crayford Ward.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37- So what number are we looking for? - 58.- OK.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39So, let's see if we can find 58.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42- How far does it go...- 50...
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Turn the page...
0:51:50 > 0:51:51ALAN LAUGHS
0:51:51 > 0:51:53What?
0:51:53 > 0:51:5658. Richard Mercer.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Does that ring some bells?
0:51:58 > 0:52:01THEY LAUGH
0:52:01 > 0:52:06Now, what we can do now is have a look and see what happens by 1926.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Because that was the next certificate you've got with him living at that address.
0:52:11 > 0:52:17And here we have the same thing for, er, there we are, Barnes Cray Walk.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19- Yeah.- At the top here.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25- What happens here? - Well, 58 Barnes Cray Walk,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29- you've got Richard Mercer...- Mm-hm.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33..and Annie Mercer. So she's started calling herself Mercer.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38- So she's telling a little fib. Or quite a big fib.- Mm.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41THEY LAUGH
0:52:41 > 0:52:42Hmm.
0:52:46 > 0:52:51Alan's finally discovered proof that to the outside world
0:52:51 > 0:52:55his great-grandfather, Henry Carter became Richard Mercer.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00Just one question remains.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07- Do you have any idea why they chose Crayford, of all places?- Well, yes.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09Um, basically, during the First World War,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12the factory there, the Vickers factory there,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15expands beyond belief, because what it does,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19it goes from making motor cars and a few small bits of munitions,
0:53:19 > 0:53:24- to making large scale munitions work for the war effort.- OK, yeah.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26I mean, and the growth there is phenomenal.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30I mean before the war, it's employing around 300 people.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33By the end of the First World War, they're employing 14,500 people.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37And if you want to go somewhere where you don't really want to be found too much,
0:53:37 > 0:53:42going somewhere where there's a massive workforce like this is quite a good idea.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Now, actually, I think he will be in this picture somewhere
0:53:46 > 0:53:51because this is a photograph of the whole workforce on Armistice Day.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54So if you think you could recognise him...
0:53:54 > 0:53:55THEY LAUGH
0:53:55 > 0:54:00- ..in all of this.- He'll be the only one who's ducking his head so no-one knows him, he's a deserter.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03Yeah, he's probably there at the back, isn't he? Yeah.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The Vickers factory in Crayford employed thousands of men,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14manufacturing machine guns and aircraft.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17Although no employment records survive,
0:54:17 > 0:54:22all of its male workforce would have been exempt from fighting,
0:54:22 > 0:54:24either because they were skilled workers,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27too old or on medical grounds.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30Henry wasn't a skilled worker.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33But if he'd lied about his age,
0:54:33 > 0:54:35or, more likely, his health,
0:54:35 > 0:54:41then that, along with changing his name, could have kept him safe.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45- A new identity, a new life.- Yes.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48- And a new start.- Yeah. Go to Crayford, change your name,
0:54:48 > 0:54:50and you become much more difficult to find.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57And he's right. It's taken me this far to find out, so you know, he's, er...
0:54:57 > 0:54:59- yeah, I think he did a really good job.- Yeah.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02- Oh, no, I mean he, he disappeared very well.- Yeah.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04- Yeah.- Hm.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Henry and Maria stayed in Kent for the rest of their lives,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17establishing Crayford as home for their 12 children
0:55:17 > 0:55:20and for generations of Carters to come.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28Alan has come to see the street his great-grandparents first moved to
0:55:28 > 0:55:33when they began their new life together almost 100 years ago.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Right. So here I am,
0:55:38 > 0:55:429 Star Hill. I think it was 9, wasn't it?
0:55:42 > 0:55:46So this is where my great-grandad, Henry Carter,
0:55:46 > 0:55:52packed up his family, left Camberwell and was on the run, a deserter. So...
0:55:53 > 0:55:553, 5...
0:55:55 > 0:55:577...
0:55:57 > 0:55:59So this is it here, 9.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02So this is where he would have come to start a new life with his family.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07Escaping from Camberwell, man on the run, wanted man,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09coming here. It's amazing, innit?
0:56:09 > 0:56:12But you know what's really weird.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14Come with me, I'll show you.
0:56:17 > 0:56:18I've...
0:56:18 > 0:56:20You won't believe this,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25but I actually lived here in Crayford in Chapel Hill.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27That was our back yard there.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32They've put a gate there now, but innit funny,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36you go looking for something and actually it's...it's back where you found it.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43Alan's great-grandfather was never captured for desertion,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47and his family never knew his wartime secret.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53Henry lived to see all eight of his sons,
0:56:53 > 0:56:58including Alan's grandfather, Cyril, fight in the Second World War.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06He's definitely made me believe in fate,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10the fickle finger of fate, I mean especially where we've ended up here,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13and I lived down here and, you know.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15If Henry Carter had picked another place,
0:57:15 > 0:57:20then maybe my dad wouldn't have met me mum, oh, you know what I mean?
0:57:22 > 0:57:25And it also makes you think you know, not "What's the point?"
0:57:25 > 0:57:30but how flimsy life is, how...fragile it is.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34You know, if Henry Carter had said, "No, I am going to go to war,"
0:57:34 > 0:57:38hadn't deserted, more probably than not he would have been killed
0:57:38 > 0:57:40and so I wouldn't be here.
0:57:41 > 0:57:48But when you really look down at it, he had a wife to look after,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52she would have had, what a life, with four kids, two different fathers?
0:57:52 > 0:57:57I think he protected her and I think he was quite savvy.
0:57:57 > 0:58:03And, yeah, you know...it sounds cheesy, but he chose love over war.
0:58:03 > 0:58:05He was a lover not a fighter.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07And I'm proud...yeah.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09And I think that's good.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11I'd like to be called that meself.
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