0:00:07 > 0:00:12Sir Patrick Stewart was born in Yorkshire in 1940.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15He is one of Britain's best loved actors.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23He's achieved worldwide fame in film, on stage and in television.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29But it was in 2007, while playing Macbeth,
0:00:29 > 0:00:35that Patrick began to understand what lay behind many of his finest performances.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40I would make my first entrance in military gear, fatigues,
0:00:40 > 0:00:45a cap, great...Army greatcoat and an AK-47 under my arm,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48playing this tyrant murderer.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52The second or third preview, looking in the mirror,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54with my gun under my arm,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I realise that looking right back at me was my father.
0:01:00 > 0:01:01And it was shocking.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08And then that led me to look back over years of work
0:01:08 > 0:01:13and to realise that I had been, in a sense,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17channelling my father for years and years and years.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20And I want to understand that.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Patrick divides his time between London and Oxfordshire,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07but was born in the Yorkshire town of Mirfield.
0:02:07 > 0:02:13I was born in what is called, in the West Riding of Yorkshire,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15a one up, one down.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18We had one room on the ground floor,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22and the door came in off the yard, straight into the room.
0:02:22 > 0:02:29No bathroom, no toilet. There was a cellar downstairs.
0:02:29 > 0:02:36This is a photograph of my mother and her sister-in-law, Dolly.
0:02:36 > 0:02:43My eldest brother, Geoffrey. The little boy is my brother, Trevor,
0:02:43 > 0:02:50and I suspect that wrapped up in that shawl might be me.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Patrick's mother, Gladys, lived in Mirfield all her life.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00My mother was quite a timid woman, and very sweet,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03but with little ambition.
0:03:03 > 0:03:09My mother had never been anywhere, ever.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13You know, a trip to Huddersfield was a major outing for her.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17Here are photographs of my mother's stage career.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23She performed with the Old Bank Methodists Drama Group,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26which was an all-female group.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Here she is, I guess, playing a butler,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33and here she is again playing a maid.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Now, the name of this maid might have been Mary,
0:03:35 > 0:03:39because one night I went to see her in a play,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and my mother entered with a tray,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45and when she came on, I heard her say,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48"Enter Mary with kippers."
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Now that's very Brechtian, you know, as a stylised entrance,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55and clearly what she'd done, she'd seen her character's name
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and then the stage direction, "Enter Mary with kippers,"
0:03:59 > 0:04:03so she said that as if it were her line.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08This is my young father.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12This must have been during the time of his military service
0:04:12 > 0:04:15in the '20s.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Patrick's father, Alfred Stewart, who died in 1980,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22was in the Army for many years. He was posted overseas
0:04:22 > 0:04:26around the time of his first son Geoffrey's birth
0:04:26 > 0:04:29and didn't marry Gladys until Geoffrey was eight.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37He was posted abroad again in 1940, just months before Patrick was born.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43And here he is again in what would have been
0:04:43 > 0:04:45his Second World War uniform.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50I was five when I first got to know him,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52when he came back after the war ended.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55While Alfred was away fighting in France,
0:04:55 > 0:05:00Patrick and his brother, Trevor, lived at home with their mother.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03I do remember that I had a cot which was alongside her bed,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07and the sides of the cot could slide down,
0:05:07 > 0:05:13and I have a distinct memory of rolling from my cot into her bed
0:05:13 > 0:05:17and then rolling back again and thinking that was good fun.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21And so I think that I was indulged and spoiled
0:05:21 > 0:05:25and petted and loved during those five years.
0:05:25 > 0:05:32All of that changed dramatically when this man appeared in the house.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37Um, in many respects... not for the better, either.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43At weekends, when he had been drinking, he could get very angry.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48I don't ever recall being hit by him, even when at times
0:05:48 > 0:05:53I would intervene in rows between my mother and my father.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58I would put my body between them at what I thought were critical moments.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01And I don't remember him ever being, even pushing me hard
0:06:01 > 0:06:04or being violent with me. But he was to my mother. He hit her.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08He threw things at her.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Sometimes we had to call an ambulance, or a doctor would come.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Certainly, on a couple of occasions, the police too would come.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20I think of my mother often
0:06:20 > 0:06:26and the loneliness she must have felt at times.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28But she adored my father.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32I mean, later on, my brother and I discussed with her,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35you know, leaving him, but there was no question of it.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39I think she really loved him.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Patrick remembers his father as a violent husband,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45but he knows there was another side of Alfred's life
0:06:45 > 0:06:48which he wants to find out more about.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53His war service... found him a superstar,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58and I'm told he was very, very good at his job.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Patrick picked up scraps of information about Alfred's Army life
0:07:04 > 0:07:07from the stories his father told him as a child.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12They were adventure stories, and he was a very good raconteur.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16I would have him repeat some of the stories over and over again,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18because I enjoyed them so much.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22Now Patrick wants to reconcile the conflicting sides of his father's character
0:07:22 > 0:07:27and to understand why Army life had such a powerful impact on him.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Whatever I find out about his time in the Army
0:07:31 > 0:07:34is going to be illuminating.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38Because it was having left all that behind him that made him,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41at times, a pretty unhappy individual.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44To find out more about his father's Army life,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Patrick's come to the Imperial War Museum in London.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50- Patrick Stewart. - Very nice to meet you.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52And you too. Thanks so much for doing this.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55He's meeting military historian Joshua Levine,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58who's found a copy of Alfred's military service record.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01If you have a look here, what you'll see at the top,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03his age on enlistment.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09So he's 19 years, 325 days.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14And you'll see the date the engagement begins there,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17- which was...- 1925. - 13th February, 1925.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21- I'm doing a lot of quick calculations.- Yeah.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27Because, um, my eldest brother was born out of wedlock
0:08:27 > 0:08:31or, as he loved to tell people, he was a bastard.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Um, and my father not only didn't marry my mother,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40but the family's suspicion was that he immediately joined the Army
0:08:40 > 0:08:44the moment that he knew he had got this young woman pregnant.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Well, I think you might be interested to have a look at this.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51This is a later sheet from the service record, but what it shows
0:08:51 > 0:08:55is the date of birth of his children, including Geoffrey.
0:08:55 > 0:09:0028th January, 1925.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04So, actually two weeks before he joined the Army.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12One has to assume there was a connection.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15A lot of people did join the Army to escape something or other.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Yes.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Maybe the actor in me is inclined to see that
0:09:20 > 0:09:24as a dramatic and perhaps desperate gesture.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Whether he intended to escape or not,
0:09:27 > 0:09:32Alfred did eventually return to Mirfield and married Gladys in 1933.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36By this time, he'd been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal
0:09:36 > 0:09:39in the Regimental Police.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42The job of a Regimental Policeman is a very interesting one,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45a very unusual one as well. What he would have been doing
0:09:45 > 0:09:47was working actually within the Regiment,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51within the battalion, making sure that people were properly dressed,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54that they weren't drunk, they weren't playing cards for money.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57You were then the prison guard as well.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00You had a great deal of power.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02And one of the by-products of having this power
0:10:02 > 0:10:07was that very often the Regimental Police were very, very unpopular.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Ah.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Would they be feared at all by the ordinary soldier?
0:10:13 > 0:10:14Yes, they would. They would.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15Mm.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17You'd probably only get that role
0:10:17 > 0:10:19if you were quite an intimidating person.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25Well, all of that merges with a picture
0:10:25 > 0:10:29that I'm, by first-hand experience, very familiar with.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33When his seven-year term of service was over,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Alfred returned to civilian life.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40But at the beginning of World War Two, he was recalled to the Army.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43He joined a territorial battalion
0:10:43 > 0:10:47of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, known as the KOYLI.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Now aged 34, he was one of the most experienced soldiers in the unit.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56Your father's battalion, the 2nd/4th,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00was raised just about the time of the outbreak of war.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04The fact is that they never even got to know each other,
0:11:04 > 0:11:05the members of the battalion,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07because almost as soon as they were raised,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09they were all sent all over the place to do guard duty,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12and it meant that they never received any training.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15- No military training? - Very, very little.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18And this is one reason why your father would have been essential,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20because, you know, at least he could have given
0:11:20 > 0:11:22- some ad hoc training here and there. - Ah.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24You know, basically told people how to march,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27told people how to drill, because they weren't receiving very much.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32Despite their lack of training, Alfred's battalion received orders
0:11:32 > 0:11:37to go to join the British Expeditionary Force in France.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Norway and Denmark had been occupied by the Nazis.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Now, the British Expeditionary Force,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44along with the French, Belgian and Dutch,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47were preparing for a German invasion of France and the Low Countries.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51The plan was for the KOYLI to play a support role
0:11:51 > 0:11:54far behind the frontline.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Your father's battalion weren't going to go into battle,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00they were going to effectively be pioneers
0:12:00 > 0:12:02and they were going to do a lot of digging,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05they were going to build railways, that was the sort of thing
0:12:05 > 0:12:08they were going to be doing. They're not well equipped -
0:12:08 > 0:12:11for example, they had about a third of the number of Bren guns
0:12:11 > 0:12:14they were supposed to have - but it was going to be all right
0:12:14 > 0:12:18- because they weren't supposed to be fighting.- Right.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23On the 27th April, 1940,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Alfred and the rest of the battalion arrived in France by boat.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Their task was to help build a vast transport network
0:12:32 > 0:12:36for moving stores and ammunition around France.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Patrick is following his father's footsteps to northern France.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50He wants to find out about a period in Alfred's life
0:12:50 > 0:12:53which didn't feature in his war stories.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59I'm puzzled as to why he never once said, "I was there."
0:12:59 > 0:13:03Why didn't he tell me?
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Was there something about this particular experience with the BEF
0:13:06 > 0:13:08that he never ever wanted to talk about?
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Hello.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12What a very warm day today, isn't it?
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Historian Tim Lynch has brought Patrick
0:13:16 > 0:13:19to the town library in Abbeville in Picardy.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24I hope to find out some details about Lance Corporal Alfred Stewart.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28- Can you tell me what the next stage was?- OK.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Basically, they were building the railway sidings during the day,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37going out to the pubs at night, having a few beers,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39and basically treating it as a summer holiday.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43They weren't in construction, they were working almost as navvies.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45- They were navvies, exactly, yeah. - OK.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Then, when we get to May of 1940, everything kicks off.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53The Germans invade.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Anticipating a German invasion in the north,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00the majority of Allied troops had been positioned
0:14:00 > 0:14:04around the Franco-Belgian border.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07When the Nazis attacked on May 10th,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11the British Expeditionary Force met them around Antwerp and Brussels.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16But the Allies had left the Ardennes Forest virtually undefended.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18They'd assumed it was impassable
0:14:18 > 0:14:21but hadn't bargained for the Nazi Panzer Divisions
0:14:21 > 0:14:25who swept into France at lightning speed facing little opposition.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32With most of the Allied troops tied down in Belgium,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Alfred Stewart and the Pioneer Divisions were called into action.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39They were hastily put on a train heading for the front.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44So the KOYLI were called forward with the idea
0:14:44 > 0:14:48that they would try and act as some sort of barrier to the Germans.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52We're talking about speed bumps, basically.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53They had no hope whatsoever.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00This is a diary that was kept by one of the men on the train,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and if you'd like to read from here.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07"All day we pass train after train full of Belgian troops
0:15:07 > 0:15:10"with artillery and machine guns
0:15:10 > 0:15:13"travelling in opposite direction to us.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17"They grinned at us and made gestures of throat cutting,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20"pointing in the direction we were going.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24"Everyone wondered what it all meant."
0:15:24 > 0:15:27The KOYLI headed north-east,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30expecting to engage with the enemy near the Belgian border.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36They had no idea that a German Panzer Division
0:15:36 > 0:15:39was heading straight towards them.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Your father was heading for Abbeville
0:15:45 > 0:15:48at the same time as the Germans arrived just outside of Abbeville.
0:15:48 > 0:15:49And just tell us,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54what kind of German divisions were these that were swinging round here?
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Well, several Panzer Divisions with up-to-date tanks, radios,
0:15:58 > 0:16:03fully equipped with air support from the Stuka dive bombers.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05- Motorised? - Motorised infantry.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09- So you got just about the best that...- Yeah. We have...
0:16:09 > 0:16:12..the German military machine could throw at France.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14One of the German generals said,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16"You don't just tickle with the fingers, you smash with the fist."
0:16:16 > 0:16:19On the outskirts of Abbeville,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Alfred's train came to a sudden halt.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25The town was being bombed.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27This is what happened to Abbeville.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38There's nothing that is undamaged, it would seem.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41There are simply... completely smashed buildings,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45piles of rubble and nothing else.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48It was devastated.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08Using contemporary war diaries, Tim has established where Alfred was
0:17:08 > 0:17:11when he witnessed the bombing of Abbeville.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Let's go this way. Along this line here.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17He's brought Patrick to the spot where the KOYLI train pulled up.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23The KOYLI were travelling along this line here,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26and if you read this,
0:17:26 > 0:17:31this paragraph here, it will give you some idea of where we are.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34"As the train neared Abbeville about 3pm,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38"the town was seen to be in flames beneath a heavy cloud of smoke.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41"Half a mile from the town, the train stopped,
0:17:41 > 0:17:46"and the battalion detrained while a heavy air attack took place.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50"It was a nasty spot with the railway line bounded on the south side
0:17:50 > 0:17:57"by a wide marsh, and on the north, by the Somme Canal.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01"So leaving a party to guard the train,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06"the battalion crossed the canal by a bridge
0:18:06 > 0:18:10"and disappeared in the fields,
0:18:10 > 0:18:15"from where they had an excellent view of modern war at its foulest."
0:18:15 > 0:18:17It's the only safe place they could get to where
0:18:17 > 0:18:19they could actually keep the battalion together.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22People like your father basically just trying to guide the battalion
0:18:22 > 0:18:25into safety over that side.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39What they could see was the bombing right ahead.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Bombs started to fall alongside the railway line.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47And one man describes bombs landing in the fields next to them,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52and bits of tree and bits of cow raining down onto the train.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55While the KOYLI took cover in the fields,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59they saw hundreds of refugees fleeing from Abbeville.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03This is a diary that was kept by one of the men in the KOYLI.
0:19:03 > 0:19:04"During the raids,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09"refugees fled along the banks of the Somme from Abbeville.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11"It was pitiful to see them.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16"Old men, women of all ages and young children with a few belongings.
0:19:16 > 0:19:22"One girl about 18 years of age passed through our ranks
0:19:22 > 0:19:27"laughing wildly. She was alone and had a mad expression on her face."
0:19:31 > 0:19:35By now, there were around eight million refugees in France,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37fleeing from the fighting.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43They were regarded as legitimate targets by the Germans,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47who deliberately bombed refugee columns to create fear and panic,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51choke up the roads and hinder Allied movements.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Looking down the line, you'd see the smoke,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00you'd see the refugees coming down the line here, this stream.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02It must have seemed like a nightmare,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06- a nightmare of bloody chaos. - Yeah.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09During a break in the bombing,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12the driver of the train drove off and never returned.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Now with no means of transport, Alfred and the troops
0:20:18 > 0:20:20had no choice but to retreat.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25They set off down the railway track on foot, away from the burning town.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29The KOYLI and your father had set off, but on the way,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34they came across damaged trains, including a hospital train.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38And it was wrecked, and one man describes
0:20:38 > 0:20:42walking along the train and seeing two children laid in the grass
0:20:42 > 0:20:44and realised they were both dead,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46killed by the blast. Not a mark on them.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48And these were men
0:20:48 > 0:20:52- who had never seen sights like this before?- No.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01My father told me a story of coming upon a train
0:21:01 > 0:21:06that had been strafed and bombed,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08and he noticed as he went by one shattered window,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10that there was a hand hanging out,
0:21:10 > 0:21:14a woman's hand with a ring on her finger.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16He noticed it as he went by.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20And then some time later, coming back up the train,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23he saw that the hand was still there
0:21:23 > 0:21:26but the finger that had the ring on it was gone.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33Well, I was a child when he told me this story, and of course it...
0:21:33 > 0:21:36it both fascinated and horrified me.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39But I do remember...
0:21:41 > 0:21:46..something in my father's voice and face when he told me that story.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52There was a sense of disgust and shame and even fury.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Maybe that story was about here. If so, so far as I'm aware,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03it's the only tale he told about this period of his life.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14By now, the KOYLI were cut off from the Allies in the north
0:22:14 > 0:22:20who were surrounded by the Nazis in a small patch of land by the coast.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22In late May, 1940,
0:22:22 > 0:22:28the evacuation of over 300,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk began.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33But Alfred and the rest of the KOYLI stayed in France
0:22:33 > 0:22:36for one last desperate attempt to delay the German advance to Paris.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42However, they were no match for the Panzer Divisions
0:22:42 > 0:22:44and were soon forced into retreat.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50The Germans entered Paris on June 14th.
0:22:50 > 0:22:51Three days later,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Alfred was amongst the last British troops to leave France.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59He was evacuated from Cherbourg just hours before it fell to the enemy.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10- They'd had a pretty ghastly experience.- Yeah.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12And one that had come upon them so unexpectedly,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16that the impact of it must have been that much greater.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I think so, and perhaps this will give you some idea
0:23:19 > 0:23:21of what that impact was.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23"Mirfield Sergeant back from France."
0:23:23 > 0:23:27I would imagine this cutting came from
0:23:27 > 0:23:32- the Mirfield & District Reporter. - That's right.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36A newspaper on which, some 50 years later,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40I was to be a very insignificant junior reporter.
0:23:40 > 0:23:41Same newspaper.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45"Among the KOYLIs who have returned safely from France..."
0:23:50 > 0:23:54"..is Sergeant Alfred Stewart of Cam Lane, Mirfield."
0:23:54 > 0:23:58Sergeant?! When did that happen?
0:23:58 > 0:24:03At some point, between here and him getting home,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05he was made a sergeant.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07"He has been in France three months
0:24:07 > 0:24:11"and seen a great deal of the recent hard fighting
0:24:11 > 0:24:14"coming through many bombing and machine-gunning attacks.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17"The brutality of the Germans against civilian refugee children
0:24:17 > 0:24:22"has left a deeper impression than anything else of his experiences.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26"Sergeant Stewart says he had no rest for three weeks
0:24:26 > 0:24:31"and little substantial food but did fine work in leading his men.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34"He was promoted Sergeant at the front.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38"He escaped from Cherbourg before the German advance troops arrived,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41"but in an aerial attack, a nearby bomb explosion
0:24:41 > 0:24:46"gave him shell-shock from which he still suffers."
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Um, I never heard him speak of shell-shock.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58"From which he still suffers."
0:25:02 > 0:25:09We know now that it builds up a level of stress and anger.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14And, of course, what I experienced from 1945 onwards
0:25:14 > 0:25:18- was an angry man.- Yeah.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22- Who maybe hadn't been angry before. - No.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33I am seeing a story here now.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Not only a narrative of this happened then that happened and that happened,
0:25:38 > 0:25:45but perhaps far more importantly, a psychological story developing.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Despite witnessing the horrors of the fall of France,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Alfred made an unusual decision.
0:25:59 > 0:26:05In 1943, he volunteered for one of the Army's most elite units.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09He signed up for the newly created Parachute Regiment.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12He was a little on the old side to be shifting his life
0:26:12 > 0:26:18so much into what was a much more physically demanding job.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22I'm puzzled about that
0:26:22 > 0:26:24and I am hungry for more information.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29When Alfred Stewart joined the Parachute Regiment,
0:26:29 > 0:26:31it was still in its infancy.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33The unit had started in 1940
0:26:33 > 0:26:38in response to the success of German airborne operations.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The Germans had seen the potential of parachute technology as far back
0:26:43 > 0:26:48as 1935, when they witnessed a spectacular airborne demonstration
0:26:48 > 0:26:51by the Soviet Army near Kiev.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55Their first airborne units were in operation by 1936.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Unfortunately, this enthusiasm wasn't shared by the British,
0:26:59 > 0:27:06whose observer in Kiev had advised his staff to forget all about it.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08But despite their slow start,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11the British Parachute Regiment soon became a formidable fighting unit,
0:27:11 > 0:27:16highly trained, self-reliant and aggressive.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Here's the instructor picking out a victim. Hey, you!
0:27:22 > 0:27:25There's no gentleness about this, even in training.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27And when these boys get going against a real enemy,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30it's going to be rough for the enemy.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43The next step of Patrick's journey takes him to the south of France.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48My father talked about southern France, but how he got there,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50I don't know.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54I do remember he told me that, more than once, he jumped into action.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59That is, jumped out of a plane when people on the ground were firing.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03- Hi. I'm Patrick.- Hi.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Historian and ex-Para Bob Hilton
0:28:06 > 0:28:09has brought Patrick to the village of La Motte in Provence
0:28:09 > 0:28:13to tell him more about Alfred's time in the Parachute Regiment.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16- This is a beautiful old place. - Yes, it is.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Just give me a little bit of background, Bob.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23My father's rank at that time was sergeant?
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Sergeant major. He's actually been promoted quite quickly.
0:28:26 > 0:28:33From 1940 to 1942, he's gone from a corporal to a sergeant major.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36I've always had the understanding, Bob,
0:28:36 > 0:28:41that my father was a little unusually old.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45I believe he was 38 when he volunteered.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Quite a lot of blokes reaching sergeant major at the age of 38
0:28:49 > 0:28:52are starting to look towards their retirement,
0:28:52 > 0:28:56not volunteering for a high-risk job.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00This location has special significance in the story
0:29:00 > 0:29:01of Alfred Stewart.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Well, this area here, we're about 20 to 25 miles in
0:29:04 > 0:29:07from the southern coast of France.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09This is where your dad parachuted in
0:29:09 > 0:29:13with the 2nd British Parachute Brigade on Operation Dragoon.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19- When was this? - In August of 1944.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23Your father dropped just a little bit beyond those trees.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27- We're that close?- Yeah. - To the spot?- Yeah.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Operation Dragoon was part of the Allied plan
0:29:33 > 0:29:35to recapture German-occupied France.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37The first phase was the Normandy landings,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41which took place on June 6th, 1944.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Operation Dragoon was the second phase,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47beginning in the south of France on August 15th.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54The operation began with an airborne assault by paratroops and gliders.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57Their task was to secure a pocket of land by the coast
0:29:57 > 0:30:00ahead of a massive naval invasion later that day.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Alfred Stewart, one of the last men leaving France
0:30:06 > 0:30:08when it fell to the Germans in 1940,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12was one of 9,000 British and American paratroops
0:30:12 > 0:30:16on the mission to win it back four years later.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Your father had a key job on Operation Dragoon.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22He was in the Brigade Defence Platoon.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25He was the sergeant major of the Brigade Defence Platoon.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28He's got about 30 men to protect the brigade headquarters.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30It is a tough job.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33There were about 180 men in this headquarters,
0:30:33 > 0:30:38plus General Frederick, the American Commander, and his headquarters.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43I'm not sure whether you will have seen this photo ever before,
0:30:43 > 0:30:49but we've been told that is the Brigade Defence Platoon.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51That's got to be him.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54I believe that he is the man standing centre back
0:30:54 > 0:30:57with his hands in his pockets
0:30:57 > 0:31:00- and his beret pulled at... - At a rakish angle.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05..at a very rakish angle. What is the plane? Is that a Dakota?
0:31:05 > 0:31:06That's the Dakota.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09I think we called it the DC-3, but everybody knew it
0:31:09 > 0:31:11as the Dak, the Dakota.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13Were these American or were they...?
0:31:13 > 0:31:16They were American aircraft flown by Americans.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21He looks great.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34Bob has organised for Patrick to meet 92-year-old Dick Hargreaves
0:31:34 > 0:31:37who served with Alfred on Operation Dragoon.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42Dick is taking Patrick by helicopter over the very area
0:31:42 > 0:31:45where he and Alfred jumped in August of 1944.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49We left Rome at one o'clock in the morning
0:31:49 > 0:31:53and flew for four hours in the dark.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57And were you able to distinguish the terrain?
0:31:57 > 0:32:03No, because there was a ground mist when we came in over the sea,
0:32:03 > 0:32:08but we had some light ack-ack from the German coastal batteries,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and there was a ground mist here,
0:32:11 > 0:32:13and we all thought we were jumping in the sea.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18But, I mean, your father, and brigade headquarters,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20all landed in the proper dropping zone.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Alfred and the Defence Platoon landed near the town of Le Muy
0:32:26 > 0:32:29shortly after 4am.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34My father and the headquarters group were all landing right here?
0:32:34 > 0:32:36Yes.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38- All around this area here? - Yeah, yeah.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Um, sheer luck really with American pilots, you know -
0:32:42 > 0:32:45they weren't too hot.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49- And you see that rocky hill over there?- Yes.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Well, we had people dropped onto that in the dark,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56hitting the rocks, and breaking legs and arms and worse.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02But when the green light comes on, you've got to jump.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07- This is about the height we jumped. - It seems very low.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Yeah, well, the lower the better, because you get shot at.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14You don't want to float about with the Germans having a pot at you.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Alfred's objective was the hamlet of Le Mitan,
0:33:18 > 0:33:20where he was to secure the buildings
0:33:20 > 0:33:22earmarked for the Allied headquarters.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27I set off to capture that high ground running into Germans.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32We had to kill them and clean them out,
0:33:32 > 0:33:35but they were in 10s and 20s, you know.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39And we sent the German prisoners all back to Le Mitan
0:33:39 > 0:33:41where your father eventually was.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44There was a German prisoner of war cage.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47- I'm sure your father would have been involved.- I'm sure he would.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50He'd be keeping an eye on them.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54The thing that amazed me about your father is his age, you know.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58To volunteer at 38 to become a parachutist.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02I did it when I was 21, you know, when you feel a bit more like it.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11Patrick wants to find the buildings where his father was based.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13Having seen the location from the air,
0:34:13 > 0:34:16he's searching for the Allied headquarters on foot.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24- Madame, bonjour.- Monsieur.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Je m'appelle Patrick Stewart.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32Um, my father, mon pere, parachuted...
0:34:32 > 0:34:36- Parachutist!- ..Here.- Ah, bon. - Into this very location.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39- Il est tombe au Le Mitan.- Oui, oui.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43- Vous voulez entrer?- Do you want to come in?
0:34:43 > 0:34:45Oui, merci. Merci.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47Entrez, entrez.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55- Ah, mangez. Voila. Tres bien. - Vous etes ici.- Alors.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58My father was one of those British soldiers
0:34:58 > 0:35:03whose duty was to protect the headquarters.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06HE TRANSLATES INTO FRENCH
0:35:06 > 0:35:08Ah, voila. Ah, bien.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Right here, or rather, can you show us
0:35:11 > 0:35:14the house where the headquarters were?
0:35:14 > 0:35:15Oui, oui.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Are you sure? Merci, madame.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Josette Matan was 12 years old during Operation Dragoon
0:35:22 > 0:35:25and remembers it well.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27Oui, oui.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Her father owned the buildings commandeered by the Allies
0:35:31 > 0:35:34for their field hospital and administrative headquarters.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37SHE SPEAKS IN FRENCH
0:35:37 > 0:35:39The headquarters was just right here.
0:35:39 > 0:35:45Just in front, that was a chicken park,
0:35:45 > 0:35:50and they put the prisoners in the park where the chicken were.
0:35:50 > 0:35:51Ah!
0:35:53 > 0:35:56- Here is the headquarters. - Ah, yes.
0:35:56 > 0:36:02Now, were there both American and British soldiers right here?
0:36:04 > 0:36:07More the British than the Americans.
0:36:07 > 0:36:12And the first who came here was the British paratroop.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14As head of the Defence Platoon,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Alfred had responsibility for German prisoners of war,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21who were kept in a chicken run by the headquarters building.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26That was the only way going to the place,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and they were parked just right here.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31All the Germans were in this place.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38- Nothing changed. Nothing changed. - Really?- Yeah.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42Really? So they were sitting on the ground...
0:36:42 > 0:36:43Very close together.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47- They were close together, they're still standing.- Ah, I see.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50And so you were no longer occupied?
0:36:53 > 0:36:58Yeah, the war was ended for us, for this place.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03We talk about that day every day and all the time.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16The airborne troops overcame resistance, and destroyed roads
0:37:16 > 0:37:20and bridges to prevent the arrival of German reinforcements.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28They were so effective that when the seaborne invasion began
0:37:28 > 0:37:31soon afterwards, it was virtually unopposed.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35The Germans were forced into retreat,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and within a month, most of France had been liberated.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42Operation Dragoon, the forgotten D-Day,
0:37:42 > 0:37:46has been overshadowed by the landings in Normandy,
0:37:46 > 0:37:52but it was one of the most successful combat operations of the war.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57When I think about
0:37:57 > 0:38:01his responsibilities to the Parachute Regiment,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04I don't think they would have happened to him
0:38:04 > 0:38:10unless he had been recognised as being a man of some determination,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13some strength of character.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17All those things are what go to make a man of courage.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23But I think he loved what he was doing, you see.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27And I know that my ambition
0:38:27 > 0:38:31comes from the same gene pool as my father's.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34And I'm grateful for it.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42Alfred still had one last job to do, and it was a vital one.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47In 1945, just five months after Operation Dragoon,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50he was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major
0:38:50 > 0:38:52of the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56It was during the final months of the war,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00a critical time in the history of this legendary unit.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02Patrick's returned to England,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05to the battalion's headquarters in Colchester.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08He's meeting Captain Nick Muys.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12This document that I have here,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15which is an excerpt from our war records,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18shows your father, who was appointed RSM of the 2nd Battalion,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21the Parachute Regiment, in January, 1945.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Now, that date's particularly important,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29because it's right after Arnhem, the battle where the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33- took particularly heavy casualties. - What does that stand for?
0:39:33 > 0:39:35Is that an A before the dash?
0:39:35 > 0:39:40The A is for Acting, so it's not a formalised appointment.
0:39:40 > 0:39:41So from that you can probably deduce
0:39:41 > 0:39:44that he's been drafted in at short notice.
0:39:45 > 0:39:50The 2nd Battalion, or 2 Para, were among the 10,000 airborne troops
0:39:50 > 0:39:54sent into the Netherlands in September, 1944.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59They had faced heavy German opposition.
0:39:59 > 0:40:022 Para were cut off from reinforcements at Arnhem.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05They'd sheltered in houses that were pulverised
0:40:05 > 0:40:09by enemy tank guns and artillery.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13The regiment suffered the worst losses in its history.
0:40:13 > 0:40:20Three-quarters of troops on the operation were killed, missing or captured.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Events at Arnhem enhanced the regiment's reputation for fearlessness
0:40:26 > 0:40:30and inspired the book and the film A Bridge Too Far.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35But Alfred arrived in a unit that had been decimated.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39His job as RSM was to help to rebuild it.
0:40:39 > 0:40:40He would have been the guy
0:40:40 > 0:40:43that was essentially hand-picked for that job.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47The most important aspect is the mentor, it's the development
0:40:47 > 0:40:49and it's the fostering of the team spirit.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54And that would have been why he was brought into this unit
0:40:54 > 0:40:55at such an important time,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57when morale would inevitably have been low,
0:40:57 > 0:41:03to essentially kind of look after them in almost a fatherly way,
0:41:03 > 0:41:08- dare I say it.- So you're saying that there is a pastoral aspect?
0:41:08 > 0:41:10Absolutely.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14Particularly important in a battalion that's essentially new,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17it's got to be someone that people look up to,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20and in order to do that, they've got to respect him,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24and, in many ways, for his character as well as his professional ability.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32It hit me strongly that my father,
0:41:32 > 0:41:38who up till then had not been much of a father figure to his children,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41he was taking on the responsibility
0:41:41 > 0:41:44of being a father figure to hundreds of men.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51I came to regard him, as the years went by, as complex.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55I wonder if perhaps, during this period of life,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58he was really quite simple.
0:41:58 > 0:42:06The picture I am beginning to get is of someone very focused
0:42:06 > 0:42:13and not, um, chaotic, as sometimes he could be in later life.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20And I like what I hear and I like how that makes me feel.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25I have a history for him
0:42:25 > 0:42:29which is richer than any history I'd had before.
0:42:29 > 0:42:34And right at the heart of that history is a human being,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39and I don't think he had been a human being for me before.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Now he has the full story of his father's military career,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Patrick wants to uncover the truth
0:42:53 > 0:42:55about Alfred's troubled domestic life.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02He wants to look back at his family's formative years
0:43:02 > 0:43:05and find out what lay behind the lifelong tensions
0:43:05 > 0:43:09that existed between Alfred and his eldest son, Geoffrey.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21Things went bad with Geoffrey and my father very quickly.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25There was a sourness in Geoffrey towards my father.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29And all my adult life before my father died,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31there was tension between them.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36My brother, Geoffrey, believed my father was not his father.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40That was his own personal suspicion.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45So if there was any indication of something there,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48that would be interesting. Upsetting but interesting.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55To find out if there's any truth behind Geoffrey's suspicions,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58Patrick's come to Yorkshire to look into the circumstances
0:43:58 > 0:44:00of Geoffrey's birth.
0:44:08 > 0:44:14He's meeting archivist Jenny Kiff at the Wakefield Registry of Deeds.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18And this is a register from the Dewsbury Petty Sessions,
0:44:18 > 0:44:24and if we turn to the page here, look under the 15th of May...
0:44:28 > 0:44:32"Gladys Barrowclough." That's my mother.
0:44:34 > 0:44:41I'm getting uneasy now. "Name of defendant - Alfred Stewart.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46"Nature of offence or of matter of complaint...
0:44:46 > 0:44:49"bastardy application."
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Can you tell me what a bastardy application was?
0:44:54 > 0:44:56A bastardy application, what it means
0:44:56 > 0:45:01is that a woman has come to the court looking for some maintenance,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04if you like, an early form of the Child Support Agency as was.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08- Tell me the dates again. And what... - This is May 15th, 1925.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14OK. Yes.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18That's about three or four months after my brother was born.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23Yeah. So this normally means that the father is absent
0:45:23 > 0:45:27and that the mother has no income or no support from him
0:45:27 > 0:45:31via a private agreement or anything mutually consented to.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33We know why he was absent, because he joined the Army.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Yeah. This entry tells us very little.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41But I have something here that will actually tell us quite a bit more.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45"Before the Petty Sessional Court sitting at Dewsbury,
0:45:45 > 0:45:50"complaints have been made by Gladys Barrowclough," my mother,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55"single woman, that on the 27th day of January, 1925,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59"she was delivered of a bastard child
0:45:59 > 0:46:03"of which she alleged that Alfred Stewart was the father.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06"On the appearance of the Defendant, and on hearing the said Complaint,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10"it is adjudged that the Defendant is the putative father
0:46:10 > 0:46:14"of the said child, and it is ordered
0:46:14 > 0:46:18"that the Defendant do pay the sum of 10 shillings
0:46:18 > 0:46:20"and no pence per week..."
0:46:20 > 0:46:23- A lot of money.- Quite a bit, yes.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27"..until the said child shall attain the age of 16 years."
0:46:27 > 0:46:31To take this step was quite drastic.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36It says something quite significant about Gladys, though.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38It wouldn't have been an easy thing to do this.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40She would have to have stood in court,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43she would have had to face him and she would have had to say
0:46:43 > 0:46:45why he was the father of her child.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48This would have been public knowledge.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Everyone would have known.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52The pressure to go away and have the child adopted
0:46:52 > 0:46:55- would have been very overwhelming. - Really?
0:46:55 > 0:46:57A lot of women were sent to the coast,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01to Scarborough and places like that, to have children.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07The 1920s were a difficult time to be a single mother.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12Although the Bastardy Bill of 1920
0:47:12 > 0:47:16had granted some rights to unmarried mothers and their children,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20they still faced huge social stigma.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Many employers wouldn't hire unmarried women with children,
0:47:24 > 0:47:28and some landlords refused to rent them homes.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32The legal status of illegitimate children was problematic.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36They weren't recognised in law as next of kin
0:47:36 > 0:47:39and couldn't automatically inherit on their mother's death.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45Well, it raises a lot of questions.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48On what basis did the court determine
0:47:48 > 0:47:50that Alfred was the father?
0:47:50 > 0:47:54The fact that they brought him to court and he acknowledged.
0:47:54 > 0:47:55He acknowledged it.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59And this was one of the good reasons for trying to go through the courts.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02Once he'd acknowledged this child, which he does,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05legally and financially, he is responsible.
0:48:05 > 0:48:11Had he not been the father, or had there been any question
0:48:11 > 0:48:16in his mind that he was not the father, he might not.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20I think he was very well aware that he was.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Well, that's a very important piece of information, for my family,
0:48:24 > 0:48:30because it lays one particular ghost, which was that,
0:48:30 > 0:48:36perhaps, Alfred Stewart was not my brother Geoffrey's father.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40I think there's very little doubt that he actually was.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Having found out the truth about his brother's parentage,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52Patrick now has one last question about his father to follow up.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58I am very interested in understanding more
0:48:58 > 0:49:02about what the newspaper report called shell-shock,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06or post-traumatic stress disorder, as we call it today, what it means.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Patrick is wondering if the condition may have continued
0:49:10 > 0:49:15to affect Alfred when he returned to civilian life after the war.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19I want to know how that could have been affecting
0:49:19 > 0:49:23the man I met when I was five years old, when he came back,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27when the war was over and his military service was done.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30Patrick's arranged to meet Robert Bieber, Vice Chairman
0:49:30 > 0:49:34of the veterans' mental health charity, Combat Stress.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41A little while ago, a few days ago, I was shown a newspaper report
0:49:41 > 0:49:46which recounted how my father had returned home from France
0:49:46 > 0:49:53suffering from shell-shock as a result of aerial bombardment.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56I'm curious to know about what the lasting impact
0:49:56 > 0:49:59of shell-shock might be
0:49:59 > 0:50:03and especially how it might be associated with domestic violence.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08I don't think it was probably just the solitary event of the bombardment.
0:50:08 > 0:50:13The likelihood is, soldiers who were retreating with the French
0:50:13 > 0:50:15saw some pretty nasty elements
0:50:15 > 0:50:20of the way that the Nazis treated the French civilians.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23There's a lot of evidence to show that treatment of them
0:50:23 > 0:50:27had a greater impact, in some ways, on soldiers
0:50:27 > 0:50:29than actual warfare as we know it.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31Obviously, I can only offer you probabilities
0:50:31 > 0:50:35rather than anything more than that, because it's a long time ago.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37But when your father came home,
0:50:37 > 0:50:43he would have experienced issues of isolation, inability to communicate,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47nightmares, flashbacks and perhaps domestic violence.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50I think the other thing is, your dad was an old-time soldier,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54he knew how soldiers had been treated after the First World War.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Those who couldn't be cured
0:50:56 > 0:50:59effectively were locked up in lunatic asylums
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and called service lunatics.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06The problems caused by battlefield trauma
0:51:06 > 0:51:09were first identified in World War I.
0:51:09 > 0:51:1380,000 soldiers were diagnosed with shell-shock.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20Treatment, varying from electroshock therapy to hypnosis,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22was largely ineffective.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27Some men were diagnosed as incurable
0:51:27 > 0:51:31and remained institutionalised for life.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33In the inter-war period, when Alfred joined up,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37shell-shock was seen as a source of shame and weakness,
0:51:37 > 0:51:42and this attitude persisted through the next war and beyond.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Although rehabilitation programmes gradually became available,
0:51:46 > 0:51:52by the end of World War II, there were still 22,000 ex-servicemen in psychiatric hospitals.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58There are lots of tragic stories in which soldiers' families
0:51:58 > 0:52:01tried to extract their loved ones from mental hospitals
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and they were turned away, because this man is slow,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08incapable of recovery and effectively died there.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12So those are one of the sort of many tragedies that happened.
0:52:12 > 0:52:18How capable would such a person be of asking for help?
0:52:18 > 0:52:23They would be capable of doing it, but because of the experiences
0:52:23 > 0:52:27that they've had, as I've described, about isolation
0:52:27 > 0:52:29and not wanting to ask for charity,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32they'd be far less likely to do so.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35Even today, we don't see servicemen in combat stress very often
0:52:35 > 0:52:39until between 12 and 14 years after their service has elapsed,
0:52:39 > 0:52:43by which time their condition has become entrenched.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46They become... I mean, I'm taking an extreme case,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49they are drink-sodden, very often they've been in prison,
0:52:49 > 0:52:51their lives are very often disintegrated,
0:52:51 > 0:52:53and then comes the domestic violence.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Was there anything, Robert,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01that our family might have done
0:53:01 > 0:53:03that might have made things easier for my father?
0:53:03 > 0:53:08I doubt it, because hindsight is a wonderful thing.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Had your father been prosecuted for domestic violence,
0:53:13 > 0:53:14which itself is unlikely,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18because it was domestic as opposed to anything else, it's just possible
0:53:18 > 0:53:21he might have got a referral to a psychiatrist
0:53:21 > 0:53:23who might have then seen there's a different kind of problem.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27And he never talked to you about his experiences?
0:53:27 > 0:53:29In the war? Yes, he did,
0:53:29 > 0:53:32but did he ever sit down and say,
0:53:32 > 0:53:37"I need you to know what it felt like"?
0:53:37 > 0:53:39No.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43And he probably never told anybody that. This is surmised,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46but everything you're describing to me does sound as if he was
0:53:46 > 0:53:50a very poorly man. And that, er,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53he's one of those who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Yes, yes. I can see that.
0:53:56 > 0:54:02I'm immensely grateful to you for all that you've told me.
0:54:02 > 0:54:08You can't be aware, but your words are helping me to create
0:54:08 > 0:54:12and make significant readjustments about this man I knew.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20Patrick's keen to share some of his findings with his family.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23He's returned to Mirfield to meet his brother, Trevor, in the pub
0:54:23 > 0:54:25where their father used to drink.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29- How are you?- I'm good, Trevor. - Ah, good.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36- Cheers, Trevor. It's good to see you. - Good to see you in here as well.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39You're sitting right here, almost exactly in a place
0:54:39 > 0:54:42where Dad might have sat many, many times.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Ah, that's good.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48I've learnt a lot about Dad's military service,
0:54:48 > 0:54:53and we've come across a newspaper report.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58It says that Sergeant Alfred Stewart has returned from Cherbourg,
0:54:58 > 0:55:03a little bit about the action, but to my astonishment,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06toward the end of the report, it says,
0:55:06 > 0:55:09"And Sergeant Stewart is suffering from shell-shock."
0:55:09 > 0:55:11Oh.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16And this has a profound effect on how somebody develops,
0:55:16 > 0:55:21particularly when they come back into civilian life.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25Certainly didn't know he'd been shell-shocked, that is...
0:55:25 > 0:55:29that's fascinating. But of course, it mustn't have affected his...
0:55:29 > 0:55:32the rest of his military career, because, as we now know,
0:55:32 > 0:55:35he transferred to a Parachute Regiment,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38did all sorts of derring-do things, you know.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41So there should be a sort of subconscious effect on him,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44wouldn't it, something hidden deep within him.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47- Suppressed.- That's right, that would come out on occasions,
0:55:47 > 0:55:51and that answers a lot of questions you and I have had over the years.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53- Doesn't it? - Yeah, it really does.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55Life wasn't all that much fun with him, was it?
0:55:55 > 0:55:57No. No, it wasn't.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02But we didn't know any of this and so we...
0:56:02 > 0:56:07we couldn't qualify his treatment of us, really,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09by any of the things that we now know, could we?
0:56:09 > 0:56:12We just took it for what he was, kind of thing.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16- Yes. A man who got angry and...- Yes.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Really angry with all of us, particularly with Mum, of course,
0:56:20 > 0:56:23which was sad.
0:56:23 > 0:56:29What are your feelings at this moment with regard to our dad?
0:56:29 > 0:56:32I mean, I need to go away and think about this,
0:56:32 > 0:56:37but it certainly is something that will influence
0:56:37 > 0:56:44my memories of father, and one just wishes, in this situation,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47that he was back and you could talk to him about it, doesn't it?
0:56:47 > 0:56:51It might have eased life for us, had he been able to talk about this
0:56:51 > 0:56:55- and given us some understanding of what he had been through.- Yes.
0:57:02 > 0:57:08Patrick's journey has helped him reassess his father.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10Increasingly, day by day,
0:57:10 > 0:57:18I found that I was warming to this man, Alfred Stewart.
0:57:19 > 0:57:26Now, it doesn't, in any way, affect my feelings about domestic violence
0:57:26 > 0:57:29or that what he did was wrong,
0:57:29 > 0:57:34but now there are other elements in it,
0:57:34 > 0:57:40and it's those other elements that have emerged during these days
0:57:40 > 0:57:43that I found so compelling...
0:57:47 > 0:57:51..and beautiful.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56We all adored my mother.
0:57:59 > 0:58:05She was modest, attractive and very, very timid.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09And yet, as we know, she stood up in Dewsbury Magistrates Court
0:58:09 > 0:58:14and testified about her illegitimate child.
0:58:14 > 0:58:21I suspect that she knew these things about my father
0:58:21 > 0:58:25that I have only just discovered,
0:58:25 > 0:58:28and that's why she loved him.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31And never stopped loving him.
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