Gregg Wallace Who Do You Think You Are?

TV presenter Gregg Wallace lives in Whitstable, Kent

with his two children.

Born in London in 1964, Gregg is a greengrocer by trade,

but best known as a judge on MasterChef.

The peach with the sugar nuts and the raspberry underneath,

I mean, that's many dimensions of cosy sweetness.

I'm looking forward to feeling a connection with people

that lived 100, maybe 200 years ago.

The thought that all those people that went before

are a bit of you is fascinating and a bit scary,

cos of course you've got no idea who they are

and where you've come from.

I'm a grafter. I've always worked really hard,

I've always really pushed myself

and that's cos I'm really scared of losing everything.

There was a period in my life

where everything seemed to be going really well

and I lost a business, my house, my wife and family,

all within a 12-month period.

Walking away from... from your family home

and leaving your children behind is always really, really difficult.

We ended up going to court three times,

battling over the children.

But I won and they're with me and they're very good kids.

I live just up the road from my mum.

In fact, I'm really good mates with my mum,

and she was absolutely invaluable when I first got custody of the kids.

And I'm going to go and see her, gonna pop in, have a cup of tea,

cos I want to know what she knows about our family,

cos I know very little.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

-Hello, love.

-You all right, Mum?

Yes, thank you. Oh, you're freezing.

So, I clearly remember Nan and Grandad cos we used to go there

every single Sunday, we used to have a Sunday lunch there.

For lunch, mm. That's Grandad and you on the gate.

Yeah, I remember this. That's Wilfred Springett.

I don't remember him wearing a tie. Did he always wear a tie?

Yes. Yes. Very...quite formal.

I understand from my mother that Dad's father, in her words,

"cleared off."

-Grandad's dad...

-Dad.

-..left him.

-Left.

-And his mum?

-Yes.

So Grandad didn't have a dad. He was brought up with just his mum?

-Yeah.

-A single parent family.

-Yeah.

-Did you ever meet Grandad's mum?

Yes. Granny Springett. That was her name.

And actually, there's a photograph of her.

That's my dad, he was two, and that's his mum, Emily Springett.

-And is that the dad who deserted?

-Yeah.

-She's an attractive lady.

-She's beautiful.

Did she have any other kids?

Yes, Vera.

-By the sailor that ran away?

-Yeah. Yeah.

So what happens to him? What's his name?

Henry Roland Springett.

So where is Henry Springett?

Well, the story goes that he actually deserted the Navy,

last seen at Liverpool boarding a ship for Australia.

You reckon he got on a ship and possibly went to Australia?

That's the rumour?

Well, that was the rumour. Maybe he went off and started a new life.

We've both been married a couple of times.

I understand what it is to remarry and find someone else,

but we never lost contact with the kids.

No. No.

I mean, that's harsh. That's a hard...

Maybe he had no choice.

Let's get this right. I'm going to make some notes.

When was Grandad born?

"Wilfred Henry, 6th October, 1907."

October, 1907. And the occupation of the father?

"Stoker. Royal Navy."

And Grandad's sister is called Vera?

Yes.

When was she born? 1911?

Yes. "26th August." And so also was her brother.

-She had a twin?

-She had a twin.

And what happened to him?

He passed away, two years old, tuberculosis.

-Poor Emily.

-Yes.

-So Emily's... grandad...and twins, one's died of TB...

-Yes.

..and her husband's gone.

That's right. But here's a Census from 1911.

Henry Springett, now his name's crossed out here.

The twins aren't on here.

Oh!

So presumably they weren't born yet.

"April 2nd, 1911."

So he may have gone leaving a pregnant wife.

Oh, he sounds lovely, don't he? Where is the Census taken?

-Where are they?

-Plymouth.

Well, the obvious next step for me is Plymouth.

Yes. There's one last thing I've got to show you.

Who is that?

That is Emily's mother.

Is that a photograph?

Yes.

Well, it must be one of the earliest ever photographs!

-I would think so, wouldn't you?

-Where did this come from?

-Cousin David.

-What's this lady's name?

I don't know. She's your great-great-grandmother.

So this must be 1860?

1870?

I think she looks like me.

If we take the hair off. Look. She's got my nose and mouth.

Well, I can see somebody there.

By her clothes and the fact that she was sitting for a port...

and she was sitting for a portrait on her own.

You know, people sat family portraits.

I mean, look at this watch-chain thing.

The fact that she's wearing decent clothes

and she sat for a portrait makes me think she's probably not struggling.

-Who is she? What did she do?

-Don't know.

And was she still alive

when all these bad things were happening to her daughter Emily?

-Who knows?

-Can I borrow this, Mum? I wouldn't mind taking this with me.

Of course you can. No, it's fine.

Gregg now knows that his grandfather Wilfred had a sister called Vera

and a brother Harold who died when he was two.

Their parents were Henry Roland Springett and Emily Laythorn.

But what was the name of Emily's mother? And what became of Henry?

I'm heading down to Plymouth and I'm really heading into the unknown,

but I'm hoping to solve a riddle.

Where is Henry Springett? Is he just a cad? Is he a scoundrel?

Has he just deserted the family?

I know that he was in the Royal Navy

so I'm going to see what I can find out online,

see if I can find his naval records.

Royal Navy records. Here we go. Let's have a look.

Henry Roland Springett.

I shouldn't imagine there'll be many of those! They've got him. Whoa!

Not what I expected.

It's handwritten. Looks delicate, even online!

"Date of birth: 31st October, 1880, Bromley, Kent."

He's a greengrocer!

He's a greengrocer. That's fantastic!

When he joined the Navy he was a greengrocer like me!

Lovely aubergines, tell your mum!

Don't touch it, madam,

it's not like the old man's, it won't get any bigger!

We've got the ships that he served in... His rating in the Navy.

So there he is as a stoker. There was talk of desertion.

There's a rumour of desertion, but there's no way Henry deserted

because he's got a great record here, naval record,

he's going from ship to ship, he's serving many years,

there's no black mark against his record,

and in fact he is pensioned off at the end,

which is a sure sign that he's actually had a good career in the Royal Navy.

So our Henry definitely did not desert.

I like Henry a bit more now,

now I've found out that he's a greengrocer like me,

and, er, also he's got a very good naval record.

But I still don't know why he's deserted his wife and children.

There's a... There's still a cloud over Henry's head.

It's not as big as it was before, but there's a cloud there still.

'Ladies and gentlemen, our next station will be Plymouth.'

Gregg has come to the Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth

to meet Dr Laura Rowe and find out more about Henry's career.

I've got here the naval record of my great-grandfather

and there was a rumour going round,

it actually came from my grandmother to my mum,

that Henry had actually deserted the Navy and just ran off to Australia.

There's nothing on this record, is there, that suggests Australia?

No, he didn't desert,

and he certainly didn't end up anywhere near the Antipodes.

Stoker doesn't sound like a great job.

Why would he a greengrocer want to become a stoker?

Money. And the fact that it was a very secure job.

It was one of the few jobs you could go into

where you had a pension guaranteed,

you didn't have to worry about the continuity of work.

There is also an element of

the Navy is a very, very respectable professional institution.

There's a couple of pictures and the sort of work that sailors,

these stokers do.

These are the furnaces.

The temperature of those rooms is in excess of 40 degrees.

They have one ventilation shaft

that they can go to in turn to try and get a breath of air.

And they're expected to shovel, per man,

about 2.4 tons of coal into those furnaces in every four-hour period.

HE GASPS Every four hours?

Yeah. He had a very, very tough job.

-And fought for his country in the Great War.

-Yeah.

He is patrolling in two places, so he does some work in the Irish sea,

which is pretty treacherous water.

And some work also in the North Sea, and he is in a Q Ship,

so basically she describes herself as a merchant vessel,

to act as a decoy for submarines.

Crying out loud!

I really don't know how you deal with

the constant fear of attack and sinking.

Yes, he may not have been part of the Headline Act,

which we all think of as the First World War,

but without men like Henry, it wouldn't have been fought and won.

World War One was the first time submarines were ever used as

military weapons, and German U-boats were proving to be a deadly menace.

Britain needed a countermeasure,

and in 1915 introduced its top secret weapon, the Q Ship.

Stokers like Henry worked below deck fuelling their engines.

Disguised to look like unthreatening merchant vessels,

Q Ships were in fact heavily armed with concealed guns.

These decoy vessels lured U-Boats up to the surface,

giving the Q Ships the chance to open fire and sink them.

I can see here that he actually goes and joins the Canadian Navy.

Yes, he joins up in 1910, he enlists initially for two years

and then in 1912 for a further two years.

His wife has twins in 1911.

OK.

1910, he's signing on for two years in the Canadian Navy,

and then stays for another two years,

and has made no attempt to come back to England whatsoever.

Can I just get some dates from you?

Yes. He set sail in the Niobe for Canada on the 10th October, 1910.

Hang on.

He goes to Canada on the 10th October, 1910, and his daughter, Vera,

supposed daughter, is born on the 26th August, 1911.

August is the eighth month,

so she would have had to have been conceived in November.

Vera's not his daughter. Emily's actually had twins with her lover.

I feel really sorry for Henry.

I got completely the wrong end of the stick with Henry.

Rumour was that he was just a bad 'un who had deserted the Navy

and deserted his family, and it's just not true.

It's just not true. It's sad.

Well, the plot thickens.

I mean, now I really want to see what's happened

to Henry and Emily's marriage.

Um, I wanna see if it lasted.

I don't believe it did, and so I'm going to check the divorce records.

# D-I-V-O-R-C-E... #

Surname, Springett.

There is one result within the catalogue.

Covering the dates 1918, National Archive.

"Henry Roland Springett, Emily Springett, co-respondent Jack Burke."

Who's Jack Burke?

Is Jack Burke Emily's new...?

So he filed for divorce in 1918.

When the war was over.

I've done a complete 180 degree U-turn on Henry.

I started off thinking he was a bit of a bounder,

and now I've got nothing but sympathy for him.

The one who looks the naughty one now, is my mum's nan, Emily.

Gregg is meeting Doctor Claire Langhamer,

a senior lecturer in History, to find out more about Henry's divorce.

Last night I found out that Henry Springett,

my great-grandfather, divorced his wife Emily in 1918.

I was wondering whether you could throw any more light on it?

He didn't divorce her in 1918.

In fact, actually, he doesn't divorce her at all.

Um, he starts divorce proceedings, but they're not completed.

The petition is filed in 1918 but he actually starts the process in 1917.

The reason for this is here, he's defined as a poor person.

He's not destitute, is he?

No, he's not destitute,

but he's got insufficient income to go through this procedure

and the courts made it very, very difficult to get a divorce.

You could only actually get a divorce on the grounds of adultery,

that was it.

-But he never completed it?

-He didn't complete it.

Do you want to have a look and see the actual document?

-This is the most important bit.

-Mm.

"The said Emily Springett has frequently committed adultery

"with Jack Burke at 40 Francis Street."

-Which is here, isn't it?

-It is.

-It's where we are.

-Yeah.

We think it was a naval boarding house across the road from here.

That's not very discreet, is it?

It's not, and that might explain why the evidence was provided

of these instances of adulteress behaviour.

Naughty Emily.

Oh! Henry wants... Henry wants Grandad.

-Yeah.

-Henry wants custody of Wilfred. He didn't get it.

Well, because he doesn't turn up in 1922

when the case actually goes to court.

Why do you want custody of your child but don't push,

don't fight that little bit harder?

It could be financial, it could be that he just can't afford

to come down to London, because until the 1920s,

if you're having a divorce case that goes through the courts,

you have to come to London.

My grandad probably never realised that actually

his father wanted custody of him.

Absolutely. It wouldn't have been clear to him

that his father was interested in him at all.

Also, there's another child.

There's Vera,

and Henry is not trying to get custody of both children.

No, he's not.

This confirms that Vera, my grandad's sister,

is not Henry's child.

I think it probably does,

or at least it confirms that he believed that to be the case.

Would Emily have felt any shame?

-Would there have been any social stigma with this?

-Yes.

Um, women certainly didn't want to be in the position

of being labelled an adulteress.

But, um, lives were quite messy in that period,

and people would sort of, you know, people tried to get by, didn't they?

And I think for Emily, her husband's away for quite a period of time,

she might have been looking for economic support,

she might have been looking for emotional support,

she might actually have been looking for sex,

and people understood that having a husband who was away

for long periods of time was difficult for all of those reasons.

I find it really hard to have any sympathy for Emily,

I really...I really do.

I know that there are some parts of Emily's life which might explain

some of her behaviour, or at least give you a different sense of her.

She did have some difficult things that happened to her.

If you want to look through this...

Now this is a child that I don't think you know about,

of the marriage.

June 1908, this is Valerie Springett,

-daughter of Emily Springett and Henry Springett?

-Yeah.

"Stoker, the Royal Navy." Oh, this is a death certificate.

Yeah.

22 months old. Oh, crikey!

This is the first child.

OK. What happened?

"She died of shock due to burns, accident,

"received through the upsetting of a paraffin lamp at the house."

-Oh, my word!

-Mm. 22 months.

Oh, no!

So this is the child that was born a year,

exactly a year, after they were married, the first child.

This was actually, at the time, wildly reported on, in the locality.

Um, so here we have some further information here...

"Fatal burns, child's sad death at Devonport.

"Emily Springett, wife of a leading stoker,

"now serving on the Queen, went to bed at 10.00,

"she had two children, both of whom slept with her in the same bed.

"She left a..." Who were...who were the two children?

-Well, the baby Wilfred, who was...

-My grandad?

-Hm-mm.

"She had two children,

"both of whom slept with her in the same bed.

"She left a small penny lamp burning on the table in order to enable her to feed her baby.

"It was her practice to let the light burn all night.

"The table on which it stood was a good way from the bed.

"Between 7.00 and 7.30 on Friday morning she was awoke

"by the cries of the deceased, whom she found burning.

"Deceased was wearing a flan..." Oh, dear.

HE CHOKES BACK TEARS

Excuse me.

It's really sad.

All right?

Crikey, how can this affect you? Didn't even know them.

Just the thought of waking up and find your baby burning.

I know. It's an awful, awful, awful story.

"The deceased was wearing a flannelette nightdress,

"the mother tried to extinguish the flames, um,

"the bed then caught fire and she couldn't put out the flames.

"Dr Edgar Arthur Shervell, house surgeon,

"said the deceased was admitted suffering from extensive burns,

"practically covering the whole of the body.

"Deceased died within two hours of admission from shock.

"The case was a hopeless one from the first.

"It had been stated that it was the usual practice

"of a good many women who had young children to have a lamp burning

"in order to see and nurse the baby.

"If that were the practice,

"which you must say was a highly dangerous one,

"then they could not impute any blame to Mrs Springett.

"Mrs Springett did all she could and burnt her left hand.

"The jury returned a verdict of accidental death."

She watched her baby go up in flames.

That's really sad.

-It is, isn't it?

-Really, really sad.

Valerie was one of an estimated 1,400 children under five

who died from burns and scalds in 1908.

Only 2% of homes had electricity,

and open fires and paraffin lamps were a constant hazard.

Valerie was wearing flannelette,

a fabric introduced in 1885 and widely used by the poor.

Considerably cheaper than flannel, which was made of wool,

flannelette was designed to be just as warm,

but had one major drawback - it was made of a type of cotton

that was highly combustible, and in Valerie's case, fatal.

I mean, the trauma of... of your child dying in such...

such a horrible way, um, Emily would have had no counselling at all,

she'd have felt terrible.

Henry must have blamed her,

and this sort of thing would tear any family apart.

Um, and it's tragic. And I don't really know how you get over it.

-And I suppose they didn't really, did they?

-No.

They didn't get over it. That's terrible.

I'm...I'm reeling from this.

I mean, I'm sad about this tragic accident,

and my emotions are going up and down like a roller coaster.

I mean, I came in search of Henry Springett,

thinking that he was a baddie, to actually find that he'd left

because he'd found out his wife was having an affair, Emily.

So then I began to really dislike and suspect Emily of all sorts,

and how dare she upset this hard-working Henry

to find that Emily is living a life of absolute tragedy.

She's lost two children.

One to a tragic accident in a fire in front of her eyes,

and another two-year-old to TB.

This is where Emily lived, this is where Henry came back to,

and I can't walk up and down these streets without seeing them.

What happened to them?

I don't think either of them are bad people, you know,

it's just tragic, isn't it? Tragic.

Gregg still doesn't know what happened to Henry

or where he ended up.

He's asked Claire to try to find a death certificate for him.

Well, while I'm waiting for Henry's death certificate to arrive,

on to other things.

And Emily's mother, sitting beside me.

Now, I know from the Census that my mum had

that Emily was born in High Bickington in Northern Devon.

So that's where I'm off to now and to find out more

about the beautiful great-great-grandmother I'm travelling with!

I want to know more about you because you are very smartly dressed,

and mysterious looking.

I've enjoyed, though, travelling with you.

You are a very, very good listener!

Gregg is meeting genealogist Janet Few.

-I know that Emily was born here in High Bickington.

-Yes.

-And that's why we're here.

-Right.

Well, I can help you a little bit with that

because this is her baptism record here.

That's Emily.

"Parents name... Eli?"

Yes.

-Eli and Selina are Emily's mum and dad?

-Yeah.

So now you can introduce yourself to Selina.

-That's Selina.

-Yes.

-"Father's occupation, labourer?"

-Yes.

Would that be farm labourer?

Yeah, almost certainly here, yes.

It's so funny, I thought Selina might be posh. She's not, is she?

-Eli's a farm labourer.

-I'm afraid so, yes.

So Selina would have... would have visited here?

-She'd have been in here a lot?

-Yes. This is her local chapel.

Now this, as you'll see from the front, is a record of baptisms

that took place in the Bible Christian Chapels

in the Barnstable Circuit.

And the Bible Christians were an offshoot of the Methodist Church

and they were very, very strong in this part of the world,

in North Devon and in Cornwall and other rural areas

such as the Isle of Wight.

The Bible Christian Chapels were for the working classes.

It was very much a religion of the people.

Selina and Eli would be coming here, too,

perhaps three times every Sunday and maybe a couple of times in the week

and they would be here primarily for the sermon.

That's the key to your service, is the sermon,

and that could quite easily go on for an hour.

And it was very much hellfire and damnation.

We have a hymn that might have been sung here by Selina.

This is actually taken from a book of hymns

especially chosen for the Bible Christian congregations.

"Though now Satan tries to please thee

"Lest thou timely warning take

"In that fearful day he'll seize thee

"Plunge thee in the burning lake

"Think, poor sinner

"Thine eternal all's at stake."

And it was. Because if you've transgressed, you're going to hell.

So Selina is living her life thinking,

honestly believing that if she doesn't do God's will

-and do what's right, she faces eternal damnation...

-Yes.

-..and the tortures of the damned?

-Yes.

One of the unusual things about the Bible Christian chapels

was that they used women preachers.

Now, this is the Victorian age,

this is an age when women are not educated,

when everything that you own

actually is the property of your husband if you're a married woman,

and women were encouraged to preach.

Aye-aye.

She's the wife of a farm labourer,

yet she's got an early photographic portrait.

It is quite unusual.

I have to say, a lot of the Bible Christian photographs

that I've seen have been of preachers.

We've got no evidence that she was a preacher, but who knows?

I reckon Selina preached.

I reckon that's why we've got a photograph of her.

I think she was important in her community.

Now I suspect I know what she did,

I'm actually trembling a little bit myself.

I kind of... I kind of want to confess!

SHE LAUGHS

Would you like to take Selina's story back a little bit further?

-Yeah.

-Right.

-Yeah, I really would.

Well, here we have a Census return taken in 1871, and you'll find...

-1871!

-..Selina.

Here she is, down the bottom of a page, not yet married.

-Selina's 20 at this point.

-Yes.

-What does that say?

-That's gloveress.

-She made gloves?

-She did.

Who are these people? Brothers and sisters?

Brothers and sisters, yes.

Rebecca makes gloves as well. Richard, no occupation listed.

Er, no.

-He's an imbecile?

-Yes.

Not a very politically correct age, the Victorian Age,

and these are terms that have no precise medical definition.

It's some kind of learning difficulty.

Three girls and a boy. The boy's an imbecile, or listed as an imbecile.

-The dad's living on a pension.

-Yes.

And the girls are all making gloves. Doesn't sound too bad.

But it's not glorious, is it?

Emily's mum, Selina, I now know her name,

was really, really into the church,

but not in a way we'd recognise today.

I mean, it was her whole life.

I think that the only reason there can be a photograph like this

is if Selina was a female preacher for the Bible Christians.

Gregg wants to find out more about Selina's job as a glove maker.

He's on his way to nearby Torrington to meet Val Morris,

who's been studying the North Devon glove industry.

Val! Why have you brought me here?

Well, I've brought you here to show you one of the finest examples

of a glove factory which is still standing,

and where Selina could have brought her gloves when she finished them

and also collected the next lot for the following week.

How did that work?

So she wouldn't work here, she'd work at home?

She'd work at home, and that was hard work because she would be

starting sewing early in the morning, by the window,

because there was no electric light,

and then at night, she would work in the evenings

after she'd done her housework and everything, by candlelight.

She would do a long walk into town every week?

-Yes, she would, yes.

-With her gloves.

And back again. But then bearing in mind, of course, that the roads weren't tarmacked,

it would be a muddy pathway, probably, in the winter,

and then very dusty and dirty in the summer.

How big was this gloving industry in North Devon?

Oh, it was huge. Absolutely huge.

And a lot of the gloves made here could be by Selina,

would have been exported round the world.

In fact, Torrington was known as "gloving the world",

because they would be sent from here up to London,

and then on to Paris and Italy and places,

because the fashion in those days,

if you didn't have sleeves, you had to wear gloves.

The 19th century was the heyday of glove making,

with Torrington competing against the great glove centres of Europe.

Their gloves were in demand among every social class,

but particularly in fashionable society,

with etiquette dictating that a lady had to have at least 12 pairs for different social occasions.

60% of Torrington's female workforce was employed in gloving in the 1860s.

As a home-based glove maker, Selina's hours were long,

but flexible, and helped to supplement her husband's farm labourer's income.

Can you tell me anything else about Selina?

Er, yes, Gregg, I have some of the Census returns here.

-And this is 18...

-61.

-1861.

-Here...

-That's it.

-Yeah.

-You've got her aged eight.

-And she's a gloveress already.

-Yeah.

-George Gill, the dad...

-Yes.

-Pauper, invalid.

-Invalid.

-Selina is eight years old.

-Yes.

And she's the only one listed as an occupation.

-So it's possible that she's the only one in the house working?

-Yes, absolutely possible.

And she would probably be, even at eight, possibly,

having to walk into Torrington to hand the gloves in.

So hard life from a very early age.

-And a real sense of responsibility.

-Yes. Yes, terrific.

So 1861, 1871. I've seen this one in the church.

-1881, she... Where is she? She's married. There's Eli.

-Hm-mm.

Selina...

She's no longer a glover, she's a glove maker and it says here "silk".

That's definitely a step up, and one of the best glove makers,

because of her fine stitching.

-She's doing all right.

-Doing very well, yeah.

And I'm sure that brought in more money.

-But then she's been at it for 30 years.

-Yeah, 30 years.

You imagine sitting, you know, with a candle, sewing away on gloves.

-30 years!

-All of 30 years.

But she is...she is being recognised for her skill.

That's right, yes. So it's paid off.

And now ten years later, 1891, she's still making gloves,

-she's 39, 40.

-40.

She's still married to Eli. Good.

-And they've got two little girls.

-Two little girls.

-Emily, who's my mum's grandmother.

-Grandmother. Right, yes.

And a sister, Ethel.

-Happy little family.

-Very happy little family.

I was at the church yesterday that Selina regularly attended.

-Oh, right.

-And I thought that perhaps she may have been a preacher.

-But there's nothing on any of these to suggest that she was.

-No.

So in 1891, Selina's a mum with two children.

-Anything after that?

-Yes, we found another Census form in 1901.

-Selina.

-Selina.

-Leythorne. Married.

-That's right, yes.

-She's now a housewife.

-Yeah.

Er...

Where's her husband?

Looks like she's on her own.

Lunatic?

Hang on, this is a big line of lunatics.

Yes.

Where is she? In an asylum?

-Where is this?

-Exminster.

Devon County Lunatic Asylum.

Whoa! Selina!

Tracking down my mum's side of the family,

-I'm just bouncing from one tragedy to another.

-Oh, no!

Oh, Gregg! Oh!

GREGG SIGHS

It's tough. I'm not used to sad stories.

I mean, Emily's story was tough, and I thought after that tragedy

we might have a happier story, but her mum, Selina, this is awful.

I'm not used to sad things in my day. You know, I have happy days.

The saddest thing that happens to me is somebody might over-season a souffle.

Although it's sad, I don't want to stop.

I really want to know what Selina is doing in an asylum.

Gregg is on his way to the Devon Record Office in Exeter

to meet Professor Bill Forsythe, who is an expert on the County Asylum.

Bill, I found out Selina Leythorne, who's my great-great-grandmother,

was actually in a lunatic asylum, and I want to know more.

Yes, that's right.

I managed to find the order for her reception made in 1896.

"The said Selina Leythorne, person of an unsound mind,

"detained under care and treatment."

Just her name, sex and age.

"Married. Wife of a farm labourer."

She...

"She says she has sold herself to Hell."

"Sold herself to Hell," that's right.

"She has sold herself to Hell and cannot go to Heaven.

"Mary Leythorne, her sister-in-law, tells me she is always talking about being lost."

-Oh... "And by her constant talking, she disturbs everybody."

-Yeah.

Um...

-So she's constantly talking about losing her soul.

-Yeah.

-Being damned.

-Yeah.

-Um...

-Which of course, for a Baptist Bible Christian

is almost the worst thing you can imagine.

But her whole life, from a very young age, has been all about

-the need to do right by God.

-Yes.

-Otherwise you will suffer this damnation.

-Yeah.

-And she strongly believes that's her fate.

-Yeah.

Oh, wow!

-Age on the first attack, 25 years.

-Yes.

-She's been in an asylum before, 18 years ago.

-Yes.

-In her...in her 20s.

-Yes.

-But then it all flared back up again much later in life.

-Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

GREGG SIGHS

Here we have the asylum record from her first admission.

"External appearances, tall, thin, pale and in poor condition altogether.

"Symptoms when admitted, very noisy, shouting out text and scripture

"and declaring that her soul is lost, twitches her face,

-"bites her lips and grins."

-Yeah.

It doesn't say what she thought she had done...

..that was so wrong that she'd sold herself to Satan.

There was an event which had occurred in her life, um,

which was the death of her brother, um...

-The imbecile, Richard?

-Yes.

And he had died about two to three months before she was admitted.

He died of convulsions at home.

And if it's at home, Selina would have seen it.

-I mean, she worked at home.

-Yes.

The death of Richard may have appeared to her to be a sign of God's wrath towards her.

-This progress report has got different date entries.

-Yes.

The record goes through to 1879, August, when she's discharged. Recovered.

If she's been discharged after three years, it would suggest that actually the treatment worked

-and these Bible Christians have accepted her back into the community again.

-Yes.

-Cos she's married, they've married her.

-Yeah.

-And her husband's a Bible Christian. So...

-Yes.

-It looked like it was going OK for her.

-Yes.

The first time Selina was admitted to the Devon Asylum,

it was part of a new and radical approach to mental health care.

The Victorians believed that asylums should be therapeutic rural retreats,

away from the stresses of city life.

Appalled by the conditions the mentally ill had previously been kept in,

they built an asylum in every county in the 1840s.

Emphasis was placed on a structured work routine.

Good nutrition, gentle exercise, monthly balls and outings.

This treatment worked for Selina, who was discharged after three years.

But by the time Selina was recommitted 17 years later,

conditions at the asylum had sharply deteriorated.

Patient numbers had nearly doubled from 600 to more than 1,000

and they were little more than prisoners in overcrowded dormitories

with reports of staff brutality and suicides.

The original humane approach had shifted and the mentally ill were now viewed as a threat to society

rather than patients who could be treated.

Selina died in the asylum in 1901, aged 51.

Gregg and Bill are driving to the Devon Asylum,

now in use as residential housing.

What you're about to see now, Gregg, is exactly what Selina would have seen

when she was brought up this avenue to the asylum.

Straight ahead of you is the reception area,

and that's pretty well exactly what she would have seen.

-It's a much bigger building than I imagined.

-It is huge.

It's not in any way welcoming. Maybe that's cos I know what it was.

Look at it, look. It's almost like barracks.

I was imagining a large house, I don't know why.

She would have lived in one of the women's wings in one of these radiating galleries.

Would you mind getting out and having a quick look around?

Yeah, sure.

It's a very impressive building, but it's just tinged with so much sadness,

and to know that she...she died here, and she definitely didn't die here happy.

It just looks like such a terrible imposing, awful place.

It was a place of immense human tragedy,

-with 14,000 inmates passing through it.

-Yeah.

-Well, she came out of here the first time, she got married, she had children and...

-That's right.

But it wasn't at all nice when she...when she came back.

Um, I didn't want to come in.

I feel...I'm feeling a bit better, but it just feels so oppressive.

She was frightened.

Most of the time, she was just frightened.

There's one last thing I wanted to show you, Gregg, which is this.

It's a photograph of a woman from another asylum

when she was in the asylum undergoing treatment,

and when she was released from the asylum.

I wondered if this particularly reminded you of anyone?

Yeah, it's the same pose as Selina.

-Yes.

-Holding the book.

-Yes.

Now, it may well be the picture that you have of Selina

was a picture taken by the asylum in 1879 when she left here,

because there are such striking similarities,

holding the Bible,

um, her pose, her dress.

That's quite a...

Erm...

-It's actually quite a happy picture.

-Yes.

-Because, um...

-Yes.

-She's leaving and she's well and she's going off to meet Eli and have her children.

-Yes.

It's quite a happy picture.

-Sorry, it's such a sad place.

-Yes.

OK?

Yeah, thank you.

GREGG SNIFFS

Crikey! I didn't understand why we had a photograph

of a farm labourer's wife.

-I thought she must have been somebody important.

-Yes.

Just this poor, sad lady. This is where she ended her days.

GREGG SNIFFS

I really want to go home and cuddle the dog!

When I came down here with the picture of her, I never expected that.

It's a fine sort of tragedy creeping up on people

and to have so many unexpected things in their life, I feel it.

I feel it. It's all out of control.

It's all... nothing you can do anything about.

Tragedy happens and it's scary, it's really frightening.

And I'm thinking of Emily, um, Selina's daughter.

No wonder Emily was so needy, she had tragedy right from the start.

She was a teenager, 14/15 when her mum went into the asylum

for the second time. That's the age of...

..of my daughter.

Wow, what's happening? It's so sad.

So sad.

Gregg is in London at his restaurant in Putney.

Leaving the sad ladies behind,

now I want to get back on the trail of Henry Springett,

who is my great-grandfather.

Now, I know he filed for divorce.

I also know that he finished his term in the Royal Navy

and then disappeared. I've got no idea where he is.

But when I met up with the historian, Claire, she promised me she'd try and find his death certificate,

which is what I've got here.

I just so need a little bit of good news with this family.

I'm really hoping that Henry's got a little slice of happiness.

-I don't think

-I

-can bear more... more sadness.

I'm so scared. I'm so nervous, I don't...

Death certificate in Slough.

"Henry Roland Springett, 66 years,

"caretaker and watchman at the Sand End Gravel Works.

"6th February, 1946.

"S R Springett, his daughter."

How's he got another daughter called Springett, he's not divorced?

Henry!

Well, all right, it's not Australia, it's not Canada, it's Slough!

He emigrated to Slough!

There's another piece of paper in here.

"Dear Gregg, I'm delighted to say that I have found Henry.

"Here is his death certificate.

"I have also traced Henry's daughter and found she got married

"and her name was Rosemary Higginson.

"I last found her living in Slough with a son called Geoffrey, five years ago.

"I would try to trace him as he must know about his grandfather."

It's a mystery, but right now it doesn't seem like an unhappy mystery.

Just a bit of a strange one.

What's Henry been up to?

Well, I'm going to look for, er, Geoffrey Higginson in Slough.

I'm just going type that in and see what comes up.

G-E-O...

There's one in Devon.

One in Slough?

He's still in Slough.

Lawn Tennis Club, men's doubles.

Geoff Higginson joins as new club coach.

See the photo...

That's Geoff Higginson. That's Henry's grandson.

Hello, mate!

So what does he do? He's a tennis coach. Brilliant.

There's a phone number down here, so I can call... I'm a bit scared.

What do I say? Hello, I'm...

I think we might be related

and, by the way, my backhand's rubbish!

(I'm nervous.)

I'm really nervous.

-'Hello?'

-Good morning, am I speaking to Geoff Higginson?

'Yes, that's correct, yes.'

Hello, Geoff. Look, I know it's an unusual call cos I don't actually want tennis lessons.

Er, bear with me.

My name's Gregg Wallace

and did you have a grandfather called Henry Springett?

'Yes, I did actually.'

I think we may be related.

Look, I'm in London, you're in Slough, aren't you?

'Um, yes, just outside Slough, yeah.'

Would it be all right if I came to see you?

-'Yeah. I mean. I've got some photos I can show you.'

-Brilliant, mate!

-I'm coming down. I'm coming down.

-'OK, fine.'

Geoff, I'm very excited. I'm very excited.

'Yeah, me too. Look forward to seeing you.'

-All right, put a clean shirt on! All right, mate.

-'Take care.'

Look forward to speaking to you. Bye-bye.

All right, Geoff, I'm coming!

You're Geoff, are you?

-How are you doing, good?

-I'm good. I'm good.

-You all right, brother?

-Yeah, yeah. Good to see you.

-Have you got time for a chat?

-Yeah, do you want to come inside?

-Yeah, yeah, sure. You got a kettle in there?

-Yeah.

Geoff, um, I reckon it's pretty clear

-that your grandad is my great-grandad.

-Yeah, it's amazing.

-Can I show you a photograph?

-Yeah, please do.

That is Henry.

-Yeah.

-This is the picture I've got of, of my grandad.

That's him? That's him.

-Same, same hairstyle, everything.

-Same outfit.

-Same outfit, isn't that amazing?

-Yeah.

-They look really happy, don't they?

-Funny you should say that! I'm not sure they were.

-Oh, right.

Now, do you know the rest, cos I can go up to 1920

and that's as far as I can go?

I can fill you in with some information, yeah.

This is a picture of my grandmother.

She's lovely!

She was a ballet teacher and a piano teacher.

How did he pull her? A stoker from Bromley!

How did he pull a classy ballet teacher/pianist?

-The funny thing about it is that her name was Emily.

-Oh, OK.

-They never actually got married.

-Well, that makes sense.

If he had had married her, he would have been a bigamist.

-Was he happy?

-Well, he had two daughters.

The lady on the left was Sheila Rosemary, my mother,

and the sister was Patricia.

-Was she older than your mum?

-Yes, she's two years older.

She was born in 1919.

So if your Auntie Pat was born in 1919,

that means Henry must have met Emily 2,

-1917, 1918? I mean that's during the war.

-Yeah.

Did they have a happy life together?

I've got something to show you actually, Gregg, because this will explain what happened.

-What's this? A Registration of...

-This is actually...

This is a Death Certificate.

Emily Springett, 35 years old.

-Is this your grandmother?

-This is my grandmother.

-She died at 35 years old?

-Yes.

The cause of death is shock following being accidentally knocked down

by a motor car. Where is this?

District of Antrim. What are they doing in Ireland?

My grandmother was Irish.

-During the war he was patrolling the Irish Sea.

-Right.

-So that does make a lot of sense. He must have been docking in Ireland regularly.

-Yeah.

Maybe the reason he can't turn up at divorce court in 1922

is he's with a wife and family in Ireland.

She died in 1923, so they didn't have long together,

they must have had five or six years together.

There's another twist to it. It's quite tragic.

It's all right. I've been through this myself.

When, when the accident happened, the passenger...

..was Henry.

So the vehicle that killed...

Oh, my word!

Oh, my word!

But we, we don't have any sort of written proof of that.

It was just what my mother had told us about what had happened.

It would be amazing to know the truth about that.

Yeah, I'll see what I can find.

-He's had the toughest life I could possibly imagine.

-Mm.

But he brought the two girls up.

Well, after the accident, um, Henry came to England with the girls

looking for work

and found a job in London...

..but couldn't keep the girls,

found foster parents for the both of them.

Henry has lost his first daughter, tragically.

-His first wife was cheating on him.

-Hm-mm.

He's had to leave his son. He's fallen in love again.

Watched her die.

And then had to give up his two little girls.

-About 1908 and 1923 all this has happened.

-Right.

-He must have felt like he was tumbling downhill forever.

-Mm.

Gregg is in Northern Ireland and on his way to Larne where the tragedy occurred.

I was really hoping that once Henry left his family in Plymouth

he'd have found someone and settled down and had a peaceful, happy life,

but there's more tragedy for Henry.

His, his second love, Emily 2, as I've called her,

she's killed in a car accident.

And now, horribly, the rumour is that Henry was a passenger in the car that killed her.

And I want to find out the truth.

Owning a car was initially the preserve of an elite few,

but during the First World War soldiers and nurses learned to drive,

and, as a result, the early 1920s saw a boom in car manufacture.

In 1923, the year Emily died, there were only 390,000 cars on the road,

compared to over 31 million today.

But the chance of being run over and killed then was over a 100 times greater.

Gregg has arrived at Larne Library.

-Hello.

-Hello, can I help you?

-I hope so.

-Um, I'm looking for local newspaper reports, 1923.

-Yes.

-Early September.

-Yes.

I think we should have that for you. Just a moment, please, and I'll fetch them.

-This is the volume here. Here we are.

-Cor! Thanks. Mary, thank you.

So let's have a... It's massive!

Oh, I see.

Right, February, August 4th.

We're getting there.

September 8th.

"Husband's terrible ordeal.

"Sees wife killed by motor.

"Distressing Glynn tragedy."

Here we go.

"Dashing in front of a motor car to rescue her child from danger,

"Mrs Springett, a resident in Glynn Village near Larne,

"was fatally injured a short distance from her own house

"on Thursday evening last, 30th.

"The chief witness being the bereaved husband,

"who from a distance of 25 yards, was a horror-stricken eye-witness of the tragedy.

"To him and the motherless children,

"the sympathy of the entire community goes out.

"Mr Springett is an ex-Navy man with an honourable record.

"Twelve months ago he himself was involved in a most distressing accident

"being the survivor in a drowning accident when he and two companions

"were in a boat that capsized by the side of a dredger

"and he alone managed to swim ashore."

He's not a passenger in the car that kills Emily,

but the horror of it is he's 25 yards away. He's witnessed it all.

And then he was in another accident where friends of his drowned.

One person should not have to suffer this much sorrow.

He's settling down to a nice life. He's in love.

He's got young children. He's respected and liked in the community.

Fate is just dealing him a bad hand over and over again.

Gregg, I've made you a copy of the report of the inquest

and this is also a photograph of a car similar to the car which was mentioned.

Thanks, Mary. Um, how far away is Glynn?

It's just two miles out the road, out the coast road.

-Right, a couple of miles?

-Just a couple of miles away.

I think I'm going to pop down and have a look.

Having read the details of the inquest,

Gregg is now in the village of Glynn where the tragic accident happened.

This is it.

This is the very stretch where he lost her.

This is where she went.

So it's a warm summer's night, end of August,

between five and six o'clock. Henry's finished work, he's walking home,

to see his wife and children.

This is the strip that he's walking down.

His wife and children are coming in the opposite direction to meet him

from the village, all smiling, all happy, she may have even prepared dinner.

Henry walks down here, he's 25 yards away, so he's spotted the wife, he could be waving.

He's obviously got a big grin on his face, his little girls are there,

his wife there may have said to the kids. "Can you see Daddy?"

They could have been waving and jumping up and down.

He's walking along here, Henry, a bread van goes by this way.

As it gets there, past there, a motor car comes round the corner,

he can still see he's getting closer now to Emily and the children and that's it.

From about here, the little girl runs out into the middle of the road there, the car swerves,

the sea side of the road, it goes up on to the embankment,

Emily has dived in front of the car to pick up the girl,

as he's swerving to miss the girl, hits Emily. That's it.

She's about there.

And Henry must have just been screaming, running down the road.

We know from the inquest that when the driver got out and ran back,

Henry's got Emily in his arms. She never woke up again.

Completely tragic. I mean, we're literally just minutes from their house.

I mean what are they doing? They're going to meet their dad from work, that's what they're doing.

I'm absolutely convinced that all Henry wanted to do was graft,

settle down and provide for his wife and family,

that's all he ever wanted to do.

And he faced catastrophe and sadness over and over again.

I like Henry Springett. I really do.

I admire him. I admired my grandfather, his son.

It's a shame that the two of them didn't know each other.

There's no escaping the fact, Henry, Emily and Selina absolutely had the rug pulled from under their feet.

I mean, they actually faced tragedy. They faced disaster.

It's actually remarkable that I'm here!

I would find it hard to say that I've really enjoyed this voyage of discovery,

but I have found it fascinating.

It's had far many more tears than it's had smiles

but I understand a lot more and I admire them. I like them.

And more than anything, I think my heart goes out to them.

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