0:00:04 > 0:00:09Actress Alex Kingston is best known for the formidable characters
0:00:09 > 0:00:12she's played on British and American television.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16I suppose the roles I play, ultimately, they're strong females.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20They're not necessarily victims.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26I think I come across as quite strong as a person,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29but, actually, I'm quite vulnerable.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Alex lives in Los Angeles,
0:00:34 > 0:00:36but when work brings her back to the UK,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39she often stays with her sister Nicola in Surrey.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44At the moment, I'm a single mum,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48and I'm sort of living in America and here.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53My daughter, certainly at the moment, is in America
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and that's where she's living and what she knows.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02And I very much feel because my life is so unstable,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05finding out about our roots
0:01:05 > 0:01:10makes me feel as though I'm keeping us held together.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16I always felt that I DID know my family,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19but because I know I'm doing this,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I realise that actually I don't.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24I don't really know anything about any of them.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Today, I'm making my way to my parents' home.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And it's ironic, really,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12that I'm seeking this
0:02:12 > 0:02:15at a time when actually, personally,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19erm, I feel rather adrift.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23And it's really becoming quite important to me
0:02:23 > 0:02:25that, at this moment in my life,
0:02:25 > 0:02:30I sort of really know who my family are, where my roots are.
0:02:32 > 0:02:38Alex and her two younger sisters were raised by their German mother, Margarethe,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42and English father, Tony, in Surrey, where they still live today.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46It's the English side of the family that Alex knows least about.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58- Hello.- Hi. Hello. How are you?
0:02:58 > 0:03:00- I'm good. How are you?- Fine.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02- Oh, hello!- How lovely to see you.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05- Nice to see you. - You brought sunshine, look!- I know.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09- It was raining, pouring with rain, this morning.- Yeah.- Come on in.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Ah, so I see you've got the... got the photos out already.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Yes.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20This is you and Nicola.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22And I think you were about 12 here.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25- Yeah, if Nicola's about five.- Yeah.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27- Who do you think that is? - That's not Daddy?
0:03:27 > 0:03:29- Yeah!- Wow!
0:03:29 > 0:03:32That is me. That was me and my mother.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34- Is that Mitty?- Yeah, that's Mitty.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37- Look at the hair! - Gosh, that's incredible.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40- Your hair is exactly like mine was when I was little.- I know! That's it!
0:03:40 > 0:03:44- You've got to thank your genes for me.- Yes, yes! To you.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46I do. I have to thank you for my curls.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50One thing that I've had people, erm,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52ask me, erm, in the past...
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Because I suppose I don't have, erm,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58a particularly, erm, English face...
0:03:58 > 0:04:02I've been questioned and asked whether I am Jewish.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05- Or sometimes people have assumed I'm Jewish.- Really?
0:04:05 > 0:04:08- Was Mitty Jewish? - I don't know, but...
0:04:08 > 0:04:10She never told me, particularly,
0:04:10 > 0:04:15but I do remember a slight rumour going round.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20But it never got any further than a rumour, so I don't have any absolute knowledge...
0:04:20 > 0:04:22- No, no.- ..Of it at all.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28Alex's paternal grandmother, known in the family as Mitty,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31died in 2008.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Alex never had the chance to ask her about their possible Jewish roots.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39But the family does have a few mementos of her father,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Alex's great-grandfather.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48This nice picture here, that is my grandfather William.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51And on his lap...
0:04:51 > 0:04:54is my mother.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56And he was killed...
0:04:56 > 0:04:59in the First World War.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02And so my grandmother didn't marry again.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06And she came and lived with my father and mother.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08- So you never met him? - I never met him, no.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11He was a photographer.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13- He was a photographer? - He was a photographer.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14- Wow! I didn't know that.- And, er...
0:05:14 > 0:05:17- You might be interested in seeing... - He had his own business, you know.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20..Some of his photographs.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23This is one.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25- It's a self-portrait. - That's a self-portrait.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27Oh, my gosh!
0:05:27 > 0:05:29- Good looking, wasn't he?- Yeah.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35This is another shot that he took of his, er, son...
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Who's Bernard.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40- Bern, Uncle Bern.- Oh, wow! - That's a lovely shot, isn't it?
0:05:40 > 0:05:43And he had a photographic business, I believe.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47The little toes are so cute.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49- And the little toga.- Yeah.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Very, very lovely.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55This is, er, the record of, er, my grandfather
0:05:55 > 0:05:59during the First World War.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02And he was in the RE,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05- which is the Royal Engineers.- Hm-mm.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08And rank - SPR.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10That may be sapper.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Funny we never knew much about the Keevil side, did we?
0:06:15 > 0:06:16No.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Erm, but I suppose your mother didn't talk much about it?
0:06:20 > 0:06:22- No, they didn't, no.- No.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27I think my brother, Bernard, has some other facts about...
0:06:27 > 0:06:30- Bernard.- ..About them, as well.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Alex wants to know more about her great-grandfather, William Keevil,
0:06:42 > 0:06:48and how his wife, Nan, and their young family coped after his death in the First World War.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57Hello!
0:06:57 > 0:06:59Alex has come to see her Uncle Bernard in Kent.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02- Welcome.- Thank you.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05- It's been too long. - I know. Nice to see you.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Lovely to see you. Lovely to see you. Do come in. Do come in.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12- Thank you.- There you go.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17I feel I must show you this very precious document,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22which I've been guarding for a number of years now, and discovered by chance really.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Erm, it was found amongst Nan's possessions, in a drawer.
0:07:28 > 0:07:29OK.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33- That's the address. - That's the address.- 32, Santos Road.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Wandsworth.
0:07:35 > 0:07:36It starts here.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41"Regret to inform you, officer commanding...
0:07:41 > 0:07:44BOTH: "55th Field Ambulance, France.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47- "Reports 11th August..." - And that's...
0:07:47 > 0:07:50That's his number, isn't it? "Keevil..."
0:07:50 > 0:07:52- W... It's W H Keevil.- "Keevil."
0:07:52 > 0:07:54"Royal Engineers."
0:07:54 > 0:07:58"..Engineers, died 7th August, gunshot wound.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01"Left...thigh."
0:08:01 > 0:08:03So you've got...
0:08:03 > 0:08:05What year was that? Hang on, what year?
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Well, that was 1917. So that was the notification to Nan
0:08:09 > 0:08:13- that he died on the 7th August. - Hm-mm.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16This is a copy of the Certificate of Death.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19- It just says he died of wounds.- Yes.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Near Dickebusch, Belgium.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28But what moved me... I always find it very moving, very moving.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29Because...
0:08:29 > 0:08:33She must have ripped that open, you know,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36in, in a sort of terrible anguish.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41When she received that, Bern was 16, Billy was 10,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and my mother was four.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46So there she was, you know, a single mother,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49erm, faced with this awful news.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54BUT she put her head down in 32, Santos Road,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57and started taking in lodgers to make ends meet.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02Erm, supported by the war pension, war widow's pension, which wouldn't have been great.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07I suppose I'm left wondering
0:09:07 > 0:09:10in what capacity he joined the Great War.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Potentially, he might have taken photographs.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18And so I want to now know more about William's career.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22And also what made him choose photography.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27Does the interest in the arts and certainly in a NEW form of art...
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Erm, does that go even back further?
0:09:30 > 0:09:34- Mm.- So that would be really...
0:09:34 > 0:09:36It would be a wonderful thing to find out.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Alex has come to Wandsworth, South London,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53where William Keevil's family lived at 32, Santos Road
0:09:53 > 0:09:55at the time they heard the news of his death.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06She's on her way to the Battersea Library to investigate her great-grandfather's
0:10:06 > 0:10:09pre-war career as a photographer.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17Local history archivist Ruth MacLeod has been collecting records for William Keevil.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21- Got some certificates for you.- OK.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24- So this is actually the earliest of the ones we've got.- Right.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26So this is 1875.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Gosh!
0:10:32 > 0:10:35William was born on the 7th November.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38So that's his name there. So it's William Henry.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41- William Henry.- And then his parents' names. Walter Keevil.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44- Walter Keevil and Ellen Keevil. - Ellen Keevil, formerly Law.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48- Formerly Law.- And then there's his father's occupation.- Lawyer's clerk.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51- So that's kind of lower middle class, really.- Yeah, yeah.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55So we've also had a look on the Census for 1891.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58And we can have a look at what he was doing a few years later.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01- So...- William...
0:11:01 > 0:11:05- William there is 15. - And he's working as well.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10- Cos that's his occupation. - At 15, he's a lantern slide maker.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11Yeah.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16I just wonder what it was that made him so fascinated in images.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21I was thinking that maybe the father or the mother might have...
0:11:21 > 0:11:25might have been an artist or might have had some connection.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27- A kind of following in somebody's footsteps.- Yes.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31Yes. Because on the whole, that's what one would do, I would imagine.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35It's fascinating that he was a lawyer's clerk, but yet...
0:11:35 > 0:11:38William's a lantern slide maker. That's fascinating.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The next thing I've got is actually the 1911 Census.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Have a look. So there he is.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50And he's now described as being a magic lantern slide manufacturer.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Yeah. That's right.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54And a little bit further over,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58it tells you whether they're an employer or whether they're working.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- Yes.- And that says "own account".
0:12:02 > 0:12:06- Yes. So that means this is his own business?- Yeah.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09It's like being freelance I think, effectively.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13The next thing I've got for you is a 1912 birth certificate.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16And that's Mitty. That's my grandmother.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20- And he's now described as a photographer.- Yes.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24So he's certainly worked through his training
0:12:24 > 0:12:26and he's now an official photographer.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Thank you so much.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34I'm so thrilled that I'm finding all of this out. It's wonderful.
0:12:34 > 0:12:40So, erm, he definitely had a passion for photography.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45And, erm, when he's 15-years-old, in 1891,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49- he's already, what's referred to as a "lantern slide maker", so...- Yeah.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53- I would say that's probably photography.- I would imagine so.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58They just use a different term for it, but it's probably the same thing.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00- It sounds like they're connected. - Yes.
0:13:00 > 0:13:06But you might want to talk to somebody who knows a bit more about photography and the history of it.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20I really do want to find out a little bit more about William's career,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24because he was working as a photographer
0:13:24 > 0:13:27in one form or another for 20 years.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33So I'd like to know a little bit about what that work would have encompassed.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Alex has come to the National Media Museum in Bradford.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55She's here to meet photographic historian Michael Pritchard.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59I am learning about my great-grandfather
0:13:59 > 0:14:02and the Census records in 1891,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06erm, place him, aged 15,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09as a lantern slide maker.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13And then in 1912, erm,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15he's described as a photographer.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21- That's a fairly natural progression because it's moving him up the career ladder, if you like.- Right.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26And he's ended up in a position where, effectively, he's in charge of his own business
0:14:26 > 0:14:28or working for someone as a photographer.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33He starts off at 15 or so as that lantern slide maker.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35And I think that's interesting. Do you know what a lantern slide is?
0:14:35 > 0:14:40I don't know what a lantern slide is and 15 to me seems rather young.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44At that time people were leaving school at either 12 or 14, anyway.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49- Right.- So it would have been absolutely normal for him to be moving into a trade of some sort.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54What he's doing is, basically, making a slide for projection
0:14:54 > 0:14:59in the same way that, a few years ago, we'd have looked at 35mm slides on a screen,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02or now we're looking at PowerPoint presentations.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05But he was making the 1890s equivalent of that.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14Magic Lanterns had been in use for 200 years before the invention of photography,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17using candles and later oil lamps
0:15:17 > 0:15:19to project drawn and painted images.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26But once they could project images from real life,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29magic lantern shows became even more popular.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34It was at this time, in its heyday before the rise of cinema,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37that William Keevil joined the industry.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44This is a photographic slide and this would have been a normal picture taken through a camera.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47And then the image would have been printed on to a piece of glass.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Local high street photographers, a bit like William ended up,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54would go and photograph around their locality,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57the local sort of religious groups, church groups, school groups.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02Then hold a lantern show evening, where they'd project their slides
0:16:02 > 0:16:05And, of course, they would charge a fee to come and see the show.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08We're just on the cusp of cinema at this point,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12so it's before moving pictures had really got seen by a mass audience,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16and the magic lantern was the way of having that communication
0:16:16 > 0:16:18- with a large group of people.- Yeah.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25So this is the lantern projecting and...
0:16:25 > 0:16:26Gosh!
0:16:26 > 0:16:29- This slide... - That's Trafalgar Square.- It is.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33And it's Trafalgar Square, probably, what? Round about the turn of the century, I suspect.
0:16:33 > 0:16:39This is exactly the type of slide that the local photographer would be producing,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42or one of the big companies would commission a photographer to go out and shoot.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46- So it is sort of journalistic, really, isn't it? - Yes, it is. Very much so.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48I was thinking,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53this was such an unusual career choice for this young boy,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56because his father was a solicitor's clerk.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00So I imagine that...
0:17:00 > 0:17:05he must have been absolutely passionate about photography
0:17:05 > 0:17:08and this new, erm...
0:17:08 > 0:17:10burgeoning, er, world
0:17:10 > 0:17:14of cameras and, erm, slide shows.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19He must have been really passionate for his father, I think,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23probably to allow him even to enter into that world.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30After 20 years working his way up the ranks,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33fixing cameras, developing and printing pictures,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38in 1912, William Keevil became a photographer in his own right,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41earning a solid middle-class income in a thriving industry.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Despite the launch in 1900 of a popular amateur camera, the Kodak Box Brownie,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56people still wanted portraits produced in a studio for display in their homes.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01The studios provided painted backdrops,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05elegant furnishings and props to produce opulent portraits -
0:18:05 > 0:18:11a service that became even more popular at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17At that point, photographers become very much in demand
0:18:17 > 0:18:21because all of those soldiers and young people going off to the First World War
0:18:21 > 0:18:24wanted to leave something behind in case they didn't come back.
0:18:24 > 0:18:30- Right.- William, as a photographer at that point, would have started to have got very busy, I suspect.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Yeah. Yeah.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36The next question that I just have for you is, erm,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39he was part of the Royal Engineers,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43so I wondered whether potentially his skill as a photographer
0:18:43 > 0:18:46might have been, erm, used?
0:18:46 > 0:18:49That's actually really interesting because the Royal Engineers is...
0:18:49 > 0:18:53They have a very long history and association with photography,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58right back to the 1850s, when they used photography for mapping and all sorts of things.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09I know the outcome of William going to war.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Er, he was killed.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15I'm still not 100% sure how he was killed
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and also I question what the capacity was in which he went.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24I can't imagine that he went as a young soldier on the front, because he wasn't that.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27So I can only guess
0:19:27 > 0:19:32that it was something to do with his photographic skills.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But in what capacity, I don't know.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Alex has come to the Headquarters of the Royal Engineers in Kent.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45She's meeting military historian Peter Chasseaud.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51One of the problems with First World War soldiers is that a lot of the records,
0:19:51 > 0:19:53which ought to be in the National Archives,
0:19:53 > 0:19:58were actually destroyed by enemy bombing in the Second World War, what we call the "Burnt Records".
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Unfortunately, William Keevil's was one of those.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05But there are other sources of information we can turn to,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08in particular, the medal card here.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10You've got a couple of numbers here.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15The first one indicates that he actually joined up in February, 1915.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20And the other number there, 550483,
0:20:20 > 0:20:25tells us that he was in the 3rd London Field Company.
0:20:25 > 0:20:31- And the rank, SPR, which is abbreviation for sapper.- Yes.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36So in the Royal Engineers, a private soldier, essentially, is called a sapper,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38just as in the Royal Artillery, he's called a gunner.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45The Corps of Royal Engineers was established in the 18th century
0:20:45 > 0:20:47to provide basic engineering support to the infantry,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50digging trenches and building bridges.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56But the corps was also quick to embrace new technology,
0:20:56 > 0:21:01adapting modern inventions, like the telephone and the camera, for military use.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05So by the time William Keevil joined the Royal Engineers,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09sappers had new roles in communications and intelligence gathering.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13- If we can just look at that...- Yes.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17- ..death certificate. It was 1917 when he was killed.- Yes.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19He belonged to the 5th Field Survey Company.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Yes. So he moved, he moved from the 3rd London...
0:21:23 > 0:21:28Yes, he transferred, that's right. And field survey companies used photographers
0:21:28 > 0:21:32in the sound ranging sections, right?
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- What do you mean by sound ranging? - I see you're looking puzzled there.
0:21:35 > 0:21:42The sound ranging is where you try and locate the position of the enemy gun or battery when it fires
0:21:42 > 0:21:47from the sound waves and the sound ranging recording apparatus.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51It actually records the sound waves on a film, photographic film.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59Sound ranging was at the leading edge of military technologies available in 1916,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03decades before development such as radar.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Microphones were laid as close to the enemy lines as possible,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and cables conveyed the sound back to headquarters.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15The sound waves were captured on photographic film,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19in much the same way as a heart rate monitor does today.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22And by analysing this film,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25the enemy's guns could be precisely located.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32- Here, we have some original...- Gosh!
0:22:32 > 0:22:34..Film, 35mm film.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Oh, yes.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40You may be able to see some kicks in turn in those strings.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42Oh, yes, I can!
0:22:42 > 0:22:46- And from those kicks... - Oh, my gosh! Yes! There's one there!
0:22:46 > 0:22:48- There's one there! - That's right.- Yeah.
0:22:48 > 0:22:54So what those kicks are telling us is that the sound wave is reaching one microphone after the other,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57and you can read off from the vertical divisions the time interval.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Oh, my goodness!
0:22:59 > 0:23:05And from that time interval they can actually read the position of the German gun.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10So you were talking about William Keevil having photographic experience.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14This is precisely the sort of person that the Royal Engineers would have been looking for.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21The portrait photographer William Keevil
0:23:21 > 0:23:25suddenly found himself handling complex equipment in the midst of battle.
0:23:27 > 0:23:34When conditions were favourable, like in the Battle of Arras in Northern France in early 1917,
0:23:34 > 0:23:40sound rangers helped to identify as much as 90% of enemy artillery positions before the assault began.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47But in Belgium, in the summer of 1917,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51William Keevil and his section faced the worst possible conditions.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57At the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01the Germans held higher ground and pounded the Allies with artillery fire
0:24:01 > 0:24:03as heavy rain moved in.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Sound ranging became all but impossible.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Some of the experiences are actually described
0:24:13 > 0:24:17in this book about the sound rangers,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22which talks about William's section here.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Now this was actually written by the officer
0:24:25 > 0:24:29who was commanding him during that period.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30Wow!
0:24:30 > 0:24:35"Disaster sometimes came to the sound ranging line system,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38"particularly at the opening of an offensive,
0:24:38 > 0:24:43"and to meet such an emergency the whole section was organised to form line repairing parties."
0:24:43 > 0:24:49If things happened, like intense German shell fire, that disrupted all the microphone lines...
0:24:49 > 0:24:52- Yes.- The cables laid along the ground.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Everyone would be going out on the lines repairing these.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57So it didn't matter if he was a photographer or not,
0:24:57 > 0:25:02he would still have been exposed in the open to heavy shell fire.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07- And we've got a couple of photographs here that show the way that...- Gosh!
0:25:07 > 0:25:10..the artillery fire churned up the ground.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15Men and guns and mules and even tanks were sinking into this mud.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20- So ground conditions became, as you can see from the photos, absolutely appalling.- Horrendous.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Wow! And it's through this that the lines were laid?
0:25:24 > 0:25:30The microphones and lines would have been laid through these conditions.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32The shelling was shredding their lines.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36The wind was lifting the sound away from their microphones.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41Sound ranging was practically non-existent. Everything was against them.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43I mean can you imagine having to do your job,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47but at the same time knowing it's pointless, but still having to do it.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Now if we can just...
0:25:52 > 0:25:54look at...
0:25:54 > 0:25:56this bit here,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59- is I think very relevant.- OK.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04"The opening of the Third Battle of Ypres on July 31st, 1917,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07"was a fresh milestone in the section's career.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10"The line system was so mutilated
0:26:10 > 0:26:14"that the whole section was organised into line-repairing parties."
0:26:14 > 0:26:17- The whole section was organised into line-repairing parties.- Yeah.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Everybody, yeah.
0:26:20 > 0:26:25"A photographer was killed and an officer wounded on..."
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Now we know that officer wounded was Lieutenant Rothwell,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37who wrote this particular chapter in this book.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40So he survived the war.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44But we're talking about a photographer being killed.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47And to try and amplify this,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50we can look at the War Diary
0:26:50 > 0:26:54of 5th Field Survey Company.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Oh, I need my glasses, hang on.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02- Yeah, 2nd Lieutenant Rothwell. - "2nd Lieutenant Rothwell."
0:27:03 > 0:27:06- SRS, Sound Ranging Section. - "Sound Ranging Section.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10"Wounded in action by..."
0:27:10 > 0:27:12- Shell fire.- Oh, shell fire.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15"Admitted to hospital
0:27:15 > 0:27:17"on 7th of August.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21"Sapper Keevil,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23"killed by...
0:27:23 > 0:27:25"shell...
0:27:25 > 0:27:27"same date."
0:27:27 > 0:27:29That's it. Yep.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32So that is him.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35And you've got the date on the death certificate, haven't you?
0:27:35 > 0:27:37- Absolutely.- 7th August.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40So the telegram that Nan received
0:27:40 > 0:27:44that said he was killed by a bullet wound in the thigh
0:27:44 > 0:27:47was not completely accurate.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53It was, erm, a terrible, terrible business for everybody...
0:27:53 > 0:27:55- Yeah.- ..Involved in that battle.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08Passchendaele is remembered as one of the great disasters of the First World War.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14The campaign ended in November 1917.
0:28:14 > 0:28:20Allied forces claimed a tactical victory, but at appalling human cost.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24William Keevil among the 300,000 British casualties.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30I feel really grateful that I've learned this,
0:28:30 > 0:28:35if nothing more than to be able to pass this on to my father and to his brother,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40so that they can close that chapter, in a sense, which I felt from both of them in a way.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43I felt was still, after all these years, was still quite raw.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Because they didn't really know.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52I now feel that that's, in a sense, been laid to rest
0:28:52 > 0:28:55at least that's what I'm hoping.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Now Alex wants to pursue her family history further back.
0:29:13 > 0:29:19There has always been this very vague, unsubstantiated rumour
0:29:19 > 0:29:25that there is some sort of Jewish history within our line.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29And I'm hoping that there might be records
0:29:29 > 0:29:32that might help me find whether this rumour
0:29:32 > 0:29:35is a rumour or actually a truth.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41- Hello. Pleased to meet you. - Hello, nice to meet you?
0:29:41 > 0:29:43- Shall we go in?- Yes.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Alex is meeting historian Nick Evans at London's Jewish Museum.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54I've been able to look up some of your ancestry from the family that you know further back.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57- For your grandma. Is that Mitty? - Yes, that's Mitty.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01If go back further from Mitty to her mother, and her mother again,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05we get back to a family who we know quite a lot about really,
0:30:05 > 0:30:09and we're able to document, and that's the family called Braham.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11That's as far back as we can get.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Erm, is Braham, is Braham a Jewish name?
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Originally, we believe the name was Abraham,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23because the name appears interchangeably, either with the "A", so Abraham,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26or just shortened without it, so it becomes Braham.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34Following the female line, Alex is descended from the Braham family.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40Although Braham could sometimes be an adaptation of the Jewish surname Abraham,
0:30:40 > 0:30:45this is not conclusive proof of Alex's Jewish ancestry.
0:30:45 > 0:30:50But researching further, Nick has found compelling evidence in the details of Eve Braham's marriage.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56This is the marriage certificate of Eve Braham.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59On the 12th August, 1847.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02She's marrying Laurence Emanuel.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Now his profession is...
0:31:05 > 0:31:08"rag merchant".
0:31:08 > 0:31:09And...
0:31:09 > 0:31:12his father is called...
0:31:12 > 0:31:13"Uzziel"?
0:31:13 > 0:31:15- Uzziel.- Uzziel Emanuel.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18And he is also a "rag merchant".
0:31:18 > 0:31:23Yeah. Emanuel's father, Uzziel, was a very prominent but very orthodox Jew.
0:31:23 > 0:31:29And therefore we can see how Eve was marrying into a very religious family, the Emanuels,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33which is a very well-known name within Victorian Jewish society.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38Given that this was a very orthodox Jewish family that Eve Braham married into,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41then presumably...
0:31:41 > 0:31:44I mean, if one's going to talk about pedigree,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47- they were Jewish?- Yes.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49But also here, we have the signature -
0:31:49 > 0:31:53I don't know if you can make that out - of Simeon Oppenheim.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57And it says here he's the secretary of the Great Synagogue
0:31:57 > 0:31:59at Duke's Place.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02And this was the representative of the Chief Rabbi,
0:32:02 > 0:32:05who was present here to sign the certificate
0:32:05 > 0:32:08- to prove it was a Jewish marriage certificate.- Right.
0:32:10 > 0:32:16So Alex's family rumour of Jewish ancestry is in fact based on solid evidence.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24But not all of the Braham siblings were upstanding members of Jewish London society.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29Nick has discovered a less than flattering account of Eve's brother, Lewis.
0:32:31 > 0:32:36So if we see here in a newspaper extract from the period.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38Oh, my gosh! Right.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40"Low Life In London.
0:32:40 > 0:32:47"The husband of the heroine of the diamond ring versus Lewis Braham.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52"This was an action brought by the plaintiff to recover £40,
0:32:52 > 0:32:54"money lent to the defendant."
0:32:54 > 0:32:57- Cos £40 was quite a lot then. Yes. - A sizeable amount, yeah.
0:32:57 > 0:33:03"The defendant was introduced to the plaintiff by the latter's wife.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09"He lived upon the plaintiff as long as he could,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12"he having great difficulty in shaking him off.
0:33:12 > 0:33:17"The defendant used to drive about with the plaintiff and his wife,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20"taking him about to various places,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23"dining with him and inducing him to be extravagant."
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Oh, my God!
0:33:26 > 0:33:30"In addition, he borrowed of the plaintiff two sums of £20 each
0:33:30 > 0:33:33"for the recovery of which this action was brought.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37"When called upon to repay the money, the defendant delivered a set off
0:33:37 > 0:33:39"which he, the learned counsel,
0:33:39 > 0:33:44"characterised as one of the most impudent things that was ever attempted.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48"The jury then returned a verdict for the plaintiff for £40
0:33:48 > 0:33:53"and the judge, on the application of plaintiff's counsel, granted speedy execution."
0:33:53 > 0:33:58What's interesting is that the judge said Lewis is a dubious character
0:33:58 > 0:34:01whose testimony should not be relied upon.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06And for the judge to direct a jury is quite telling really about...
0:34:06 > 0:34:11He was living a lifestyle that wasn't quite as becoming or orthodox as we would hope.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16- And his poor mother! - Yeah, and his poor mother still had quite a few years to go.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22So she must have seen this in a very prominent newspaper about what her son is getting up to.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Ooh, he's a party boy, isn't he?!
0:34:28 > 0:34:33The Braham family matriarch, Elizabeth, had been widowed in 1827
0:34:33 > 0:34:37when her four children were all under the age of 10.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Alex wants to understand how Elizabeth managed to make ends meet
0:34:42 > 0:34:45as a single mother in the mid-19th century.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54So if we see here, the 1851 Census, I don't know if you can make out the actual address.
0:34:54 > 0:34:569, Shepherd Street, erm,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59in the district of Hanover Square, Westminster.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01In the heart of Mayfair.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05Elizabeth Braham is the head of the household.
0:35:05 > 0:35:11But it says then here - rank, profession or occupation - lodging house keeper.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17So presumably that's what Elizabeth Braham set to doing,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20to try and make some money for her family.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24It's not always desirable. People didn't always want to be lodging house keepers.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27- It was a way of paying the bills. - Yes.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31- She's strong, proactive. She's really keeping her head above water.- Yeah.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36And keeping her respectability by being financially independent,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39because there was very little support for widows at the time.
0:35:39 > 0:35:45- She was obviously a strong figure. - And that's funnily enough, exactly what Nan did as well.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50- Really?- Because, erm, her husband, erm, died in the First World War
0:35:50 > 0:35:54and she had, well, my grandmother and her two brothers.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56They were all young children.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59And she then did the same thing, she, basically...
0:35:59 > 0:36:02- It's interesting, isn't it? - She took in lodgers.- Yeah.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18Today, Shepherd Street, where Elizabeth Braham kept her lodging house,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22has been renamed, and most of the original houses are gone.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30So Alex has come to a Mayfair club nearby to meet historian Catharine Arnold.
0:36:33 > 0:36:39Alex has further questions about her four times great-grandmother's life in the 1850s.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44I, basically, learnt today
0:36:44 > 0:36:48that I have Jewish ancestry.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53- And Elizabeth Braham, erm, lived till she was 84.- Remarkable.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56They're living here at a house - 9, Shepherd Street.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00And she is a lodging house keeper.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04But what I've noticed, er, and this has literally just struck me,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07erm, reading this Census,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12all of these houses are in Shepherd Street, which is where they live,
0:37:12 > 0:37:17and actually I've noticed that there are quite a number of women
0:37:17 > 0:37:21who are the heads of the household. In fact, almost all of them are.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25- Which seems quite extraordinary. - For the times.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And also, a lot of them are lodging house keepers.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32- So it seems as though the men are very absent.- Yes.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34And there seems to be a street full of women.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38- It seems to be quite a matriarchal establishment, doesn't it?- Yes.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40- With a lot of... - Is that typical?
0:37:40 > 0:37:45..Powerful women running houses. Erm, not normally.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48So this street must be something different.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50- Something different about this street.- Something different.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Something a bit out of the ordinary about this district or this street.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Right. Oh, my... They're not hookers, are they? Are they prostitutes?
0:37:57 > 0:38:00SHE GASPS Are they?! Oh, my God! They're not?!
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Are they really? Oh, no!
0:38:03 > 0:38:05- Seriously?- Seriously.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10Erm, they could well have been running what were called "disorderly houses" or "houses of ill repute".
0:38:10 > 0:38:13Oh, my word! Oh...!
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Not necessarily actively pursuant in being prostitutes themselves,
0:38:17 > 0:38:22but running disorderly houses or houses of assignation.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Rather like motels where people could rent a room.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28- Rent a room.- By the hour. Yes. - Oh, my goodness!
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Prostitution was widespread in 19th-century London.
0:38:36 > 0:38:42Somewhere between 50,000 to 80,000 prostitutes catered for all classes of clientele.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49There were even guidebooks to help men choose their pleasure,
0:38:49 > 0:38:53from seedy Soho to the more genteel streets of Mayfair,
0:38:53 > 0:38:57where Elizabeth Braham kept her lodging house.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02These houses of assignation
0:39:02 > 0:39:05functioned more like guest houses than brothels.
0:39:05 > 0:39:11After procuring their clients, prostitutes came to areas like Shepherd Street to rent a room.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I think you'll find this very interesting.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18This is the Leicester Chronicle.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23And it's just a small item in what they call "domestic news".
0:39:23 > 0:39:25"A gentleman has poisoned himself
0:39:25 > 0:39:29"in a house of ill fame in Shepherd Street, London,
0:39:29 > 0:39:34"which he had entered with a girl known in the locality as Polka Poll."
0:39:34 > 0:39:35ALEX LAUGHS
0:39:35 > 0:39:39Poisoned himself in a house of ill fame!
0:39:39 > 0:39:41SHE GASPS
0:39:41 > 0:39:42Oh, my God!
0:39:42 > 0:39:45- In Shepherd Street.- Yes.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48- With Polka Poll.- With Polka Poll.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Oh, my goodness me!
0:39:50 > 0:39:55So, let's have a look at the next newspaper cutting.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00"Last night an inquiry took place before Mr Bedford
0:40:00 > 0:40:05"at the Rising Sun Tavern, Charles Street, Grosvenor Square,
0:40:05 > 0:40:10"as to the death of Mr James Fairs, aged 24.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14"Mary Ann Dalton proved accompanying the deceased,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17"who was perfectly sober, to a house,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21"9, Shepherd Street, Oxford Street,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24"where he sent for a bottle of wine."
0:40:24 > 0:40:25Wow!
0:40:27 > 0:40:28Wow!
0:40:28 > 0:40:30- Number 9.- Number 9.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37- That really says it all, doesn't it? - I'm afraid it does.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40So Mary Ann Dalton IS Polka Poll.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42She can only be.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47What would be interesting is to find out about the last hours of James Fairs.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49It would be very interesting.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52- There'll be a record of the coroner's inquest.- Yes.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57So what we have to do is go to Westminster Abbey and look at the records.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00- God, it's fascinating. - It is fascinating.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04- I'm loving this.- Yes. - I think this is fantastic!
0:41:05 > 0:41:06Wow!
0:41:14 > 0:41:18When I found that Elizabeth had been widowed
0:41:18 > 0:41:20and she also took in lodgers.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24And I thought that was rather ironic really.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28After having been on the journey with William Henry Keevil
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and my great-grandmother Nan.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36And how she then took in lodgers to, basically, provide for
0:41:36 > 0:41:38her small children.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41The difference is...
0:41:41 > 0:41:46that the lodging that, that Elizabeth established...
0:41:46 > 0:41:48was a brothel!
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Erm, and, I mean...
0:41:51 > 0:41:54This morning, all I can say is, this morning,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57I found my inner Jew.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00And, this afternoon, I found my inner whore!
0:42:00 > 0:42:05I mean, it's like... I just, erm... I was not expecting that.
0:42:12 > 0:42:18To learn precisely what took place in Elizabeth Braham's lodging house on the night James Fairs died,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Alex and Catharine have come to Westminster Abbey.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30Original records of 19th-century coroners' inquests for the City of Westminster
0:42:30 > 0:42:34are kept in the Abbey library's special Muniment Collection.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40This is what they call the "inquisition" or inquest, as we'd call it today.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43It's a very delicate, old document, so...
0:42:43 > 0:42:49- But to make it slightly easier for us, I have got us a transcript here.- Right.
0:42:51 > 0:42:52And here we go.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58"Information of witnesses taken this 15th day of November, 1852,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03"at the house of George Henton, known by the name of The Rising Sun."
0:43:03 > 0:43:07- Pub.- That's right. That's where they held inquests in those days.- Right.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10"Mary Ann Dalton."
0:43:10 > 0:43:12- That's Polka Poll. - That's Polka Poll, yes.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15"Information from her on oath
0:43:15 > 0:43:17"that on Wednesday last,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19"about half past four,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22"I was with Sarah.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25"Deceased came and talked to us.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28"He appeared to be perfectly sober.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33"We went into Number 9, Shepherd Street, Oxford Street, together.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36"He selected a room and called for some wine.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39"Had connection."
0:43:40 > 0:43:43- It's a wonderful phrase, isn't it? - Fabulous.- Lovely euphemism. Yes.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47COCKNEY ACCENT: I should really be reading it like this, shouldn't I? Polka Poll.
0:43:47 > 0:43:48Yeah.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51COCKNEY ACCENT: "He took a vial out of his pocket and said,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54"'Look here, I've something I mean to drink presently.'
0:43:54 > 0:43:58"I said, 'What is it? Lavender water?'
0:43:58 > 0:44:01"I asked him to let me smell it.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05"He laughed and said he would not and put it into his pocket.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09"He sat a few minutes and began crying."
0:44:09 > 0:44:11Aw!
0:44:11 > 0:44:15"I came and got the wine and as I turned back again,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18"he took the phial from the top of the wine glass.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21"I endeavoured to get the glass away from him.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24"I upset a little in doing so,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27"but he put it to his mouth and drank it.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30"He never spoke after he took it.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33"He made a blowing noise with his mouth.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36"He leaned on the sofa till the doctor came.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38"He gave me no money.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41"The policeman came. He took the bottle.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43"I drank some wine.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45"Verdict.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49"That deceased destroyed his own life by poison,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53"being at the time in a state of insanity."
0:44:53 > 0:44:55Dreadful business.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Well, I suppose, erm...
0:45:00 > 0:45:05- At least, it WAS suicide. I thought maybe they'd killed him. - They'd killed him.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Very, very interesting.
0:45:08 > 0:45:09Right.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12The case happened in 1852.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14That makes Elizabeth...
0:45:14 > 0:45:16- 63.- 63.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21I suspect that Elizabeth knew very well what was going on.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22OK.
0:45:22 > 0:45:27And the reason that she doesn't appear in the proceedings of the inquest
0:45:27 > 0:45:31could be that she wanted her name kept out of the papers.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34- Yes.- And she wanted to keep a low profile.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Because Elizabeth had actually been up before the Bench before,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41- many, many years earlier.- Oh...
0:45:42 > 0:45:43OK.
0:45:43 > 0:45:49Elizabeth was charged with keeping a disorderly house in 1827.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53- Near Leicester Square. - Oh, my word! Near Leicester Square.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56- Let's look at the documents.- All right.- Let's look at what I found.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Here's a headline from the time, in The Standard.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06They're just in the newspapers all the time!
0:46:06 > 0:46:07Right.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09The Standard.
0:46:09 > 0:46:15"The defendant in this indictment, was convicted of keeping a house of ill fame...
0:46:17 > 0:46:22"..Named the Sidney Hotel, in Leicester Street, Leicester Fields."
0:46:22 > 0:46:24Which is Leicester Square.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28Righty-ho.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35I'm... You know what? I'm no longer shocked. That's all I can say.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42It appears that Elizabeth Braham was keeping a house of ill fame
0:46:42 > 0:46:46a full 25 years before the incident at Shepherd Street.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54For women with no other means of support, the sex trade was extremely profitable.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59Prostitutes could earn up to 10 times the income of domestic servants.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05And landladies, like Elizabeth Braham, earned even more from the rooms they provided.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10At the time, prostitution itself was not illegal,
0:47:10 > 0:47:15so anti-vice campaigners often focused their challenges on public nuisance offences.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Here's the indictment of Elizabeth Braham.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Ahem!
0:47:25 > 0:47:27"The jurors for our Lord the King
0:47:27 > 0:47:32"upon their oath present that Elizabeth Braham,
0:47:32 > 0:47:36"late of the Parish of St Anne, a certain common bawdy house,
0:47:36 > 0:47:41"unlawfully and wickedly did keep and maintain
0:47:41 > 0:47:44"on the days and times aforesaid,
0:47:44 > 0:47:49"there did commit whoredom and fornication."
0:47:49 > 0:47:53- Wonderful language. - "Whereby diverse unlawful assemblies,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56"riots, routs and affrays,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01"disturbances and violations of the peace of our own said Lord the King,
0:48:01 > 0:48:06"and dreadful, filthy and lewd offences in the same house
0:48:06 > 0:48:08"on the days and times aforesaid.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11"As well as in the night as in the day,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14"there were committed and perpetrated
0:48:14 > 0:48:18"to the great damage and common nuisance of all the liege subjects
0:48:18 > 0:48:21"of our said Lord the King."
0:48:23 > 0:48:26- It's like Sodom and Gomorrah! - It really is.
0:48:26 > 0:48:27Oh, my word!
0:48:28 > 0:48:32"Cometh the said Elizabeth Braham in her proper person
0:48:32 > 0:48:36"and having heard the said indictment,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39"read the oath that she is not guilty thereof."
0:48:39 > 0:48:41It's extraordinary, isn't it?
0:48:41 > 0:48:44She, literally, does not have a leg to stand on,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48and she's saying, "Not guilty, M'Lord." Quite extraordinary.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51I think it shows tremendous guts and resilience,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54because if we look at her life then,
0:48:54 > 0:48:58she had four children under 10.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01And she does not have any legal representation,
0:49:01 > 0:49:06because in those days it was very, very rare to have any kind of advocate.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08So she's defending herself.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12"And concerning the matters within contained,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15"to say upon their oath that the said Elizabeth Braham
0:49:15 > 0:49:21"is guilty of the premises in the indictment within specified."
0:49:21 > 0:49:23So she's found guilty?
0:49:23 > 0:49:26- Yes. - And we then have no knowledge...
0:49:26 > 0:49:31There's nothing to indicate how long she's in jail for?
0:49:31 > 0:49:34- No. We do not know whether she went to a house of correction, as they were then called.- Right.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Or whether she paid a stiff fine.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And so the next time that we...
0:49:40 > 0:49:43that we come upon her,
0:49:43 > 0:49:45which is in the Census,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48- that's when she owns the property at 9, Shepherd Street.- That's right.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53So she hasn't stopped, erm, her profession.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55No. But she has gone below the radar.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- She's gone below the radar.- She's run a much more discreet operation.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59Yeah.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16I'm now intrigued...
0:50:16 > 0:50:19as to whether she continued
0:50:19 > 0:50:22to work in this profession.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26But she did it very, very much behind closed doors.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30Or whether she became even more infamous
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and ended up in jail, in bedlam, in goodness knows where.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37So it would be really fascinating to know
0:50:37 > 0:50:41what those last 20 years, really,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43of her life were like and where she ended up.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49To fill in these details, Alex is meeting historian Sarah Richardson.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51- Hello.- Hello.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56We start off here... the 1861 Census.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00And you find her, er, in Marylebone.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02In Northumberland Street.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04This area, is this a step up?
0:51:04 > 0:51:06- Yeah. Yeah.- Right.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11And now let's see, here it says, "Elizabeth Braham, head of the household,
0:51:11 > 0:51:16- "widow, freeholder." - So she owns property.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Oh, what, she owns other property?
0:51:18 > 0:51:21She... Yeah, that's how she's describing herself.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24So below Elizabeth,
0:51:24 > 0:51:26there is Rosa Matilda.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30And she's a granddaughter.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35- There's a little... I don't quite understand. There's a little squiggly thing there.- Yeah.
0:51:35 > 0:51:40So that means ditto. So Rosa Matilda's surname is Braham.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45Well, there's only one male Braham, which is Lewis.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49- She can only be his daughter.- Yep.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57In 1861, the 72-year-old Elizabeth Braham
0:51:57 > 0:52:02was looking after her son Lewis's 10-year-old daughter, Rosa.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Only two years earlier,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08Lewis had appeared in the press during his scandalous court case.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15And I suppose he's just not in a fit state to bring up a child, I would imagine.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18So the care of the granddaughter has gone to Elizabeth.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Has gone to Elizabeth. Yes.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24- So shall we check the next Census? - OK.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27- So...- So this is 1871. - This is 1871.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30- Hang on. But Lewis Braham is now living with her.- Yes.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35And he's called himself a "financial agent".
0:52:35 > 0:52:38And Rosa Braham...
0:52:38 > 0:52:41who's aged 20 now.
0:52:41 > 0:52:42She's there.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47That's a different house. 8, Titchfield Terrace.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53It's in St John's Wood. So she's steadily moving upmarket.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I mean, my God! They...
0:52:55 > 0:52:59She must have had amazing girls or something, to make all that money.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03- And this is all a single woman doing this.- Yes.
0:53:03 > 0:53:09In this period, women were unable to own property if they were married.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13There's this strong disincentive for widows to remarry.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15Mm.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Particularly I think with characters like this, where, er,
0:53:19 > 0:53:24they have this strong independent streak and entrepreneurial streak.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28- They're going to lose everything to a man.- Mm.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40Elizabeth remained a widow until her death at the age of 84.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44By the law of coverture, had she remarried, her property would have gone to her husband,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47unless it was vested in a trust.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54But not only did Elizabeth hold on to her property in her lifetime,
0:53:54 > 0:53:57she continued to protect it after her death.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04So shall we move on, maybe, to her will.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07God, this paper again. Look at that writing!
0:54:07 > 0:54:09SHE GASPS
0:54:09 > 0:54:12- That's her signature there, isn't it? - Yes.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17"This is the last Will and Testament
0:54:17 > 0:54:20"of me, Elizabeth Braham.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25"I give and bequeath all my plate, linen,
0:54:25 > 0:54:27"china, glass, books,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30"pictures, prints
0:54:30 > 0:54:33"wines, linen, furniture
0:54:33 > 0:54:36"and other household effects unto my son,
0:54:36 > 0:54:38"Louis Braham.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46"I give and bequeath unto my granddaughter, Rosa Braham,
0:54:46 > 0:54:48"my watch and chain
0:54:48 > 0:54:53"and all the jewels, trinkets and personal ornaments
0:54:53 > 0:54:56"worn and used by me in my lifetime."
0:54:59 > 0:55:00Wow!
0:55:01 > 0:55:04"In trust as to my freehold houses,
0:55:04 > 0:55:06"numbers 1 and 4,
0:55:06 > 0:55:11"Wade Street, Poplar, in the said county of Middlesex,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14"for the said Rosa Braham
0:55:14 > 0:55:17"and for her sole and separate use,
0:55:17 > 0:55:22"free from the control and debts of any husband she may marry."
0:55:22 > 0:55:25So these are the most valuable parts of her estate.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29And what she's using here is the device of the trust
0:55:29 > 0:55:33to protect the property from future husbands and so on.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35So... My God!
0:55:35 > 0:55:39She's so smart, that's all I can say.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42So she owns...
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Number 58.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Number 56.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Number 54.
0:55:49 > 0:55:54And Number 52, Cochrane Street, St John's Wood.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57And she also...
0:55:57 > 0:56:01owns Titchfield Street.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04- And freehold in Poplar as well. - Freehold in Poplar.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07And she's all done that on her own.
0:56:07 > 0:56:08Yeah.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13And I think what's interesting about the will
0:56:13 > 0:56:18is that, normally, you would have expected the property to go to the son.
0:56:20 > 0:56:21Yes.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Through primogeniture, that's what would have been expected.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28But she privileges his daughter.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32- She's securing the future for the most vulnerable member of the family.- Yes.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34- The girl that she brought up.- Wow!
0:56:36 > 0:56:38How much was she worth then, would you say?
0:56:38 > 0:56:44Well, she's leaving around £1,500 of freehold and leasehold property.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48The nearest comparison I can give you is, somebody who dies in the same year as her
0:56:48 > 0:56:51is the explorer David Livingstone.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54And he leaves around the same amount.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59So you're talking about respectable upper middle class, comfortably off.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Gosh, it's fascinating.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03I love it. It's amazing.
0:57:03 > 0:57:09I mean, really, really amazing, considering that she was widowed.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12- Quite young.- Quite young.- With four young children under...- Yes.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18What you'd expect for somebody in that position is for them to sink into poverty.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21She doesn't just survive, she prospers. She's thinking ahead.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25- She's astute, and this is somebody who's quite a strong woman.- Yes.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27That's amazing.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39This a journey that I really had no sense of
0:57:39 > 0:57:43where it was going and how it was going to conclude.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46Not only did it become, sort of...
0:57:46 > 0:57:49I felt like I was reading the News Of The World or something!
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Opening every day... I was like opening another page and there...
0:57:53 > 0:57:55Erm...
0:57:55 > 0:57:58But actually at the end of it,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01I've come away thinking, wow!
0:58:01 > 0:58:06What an extraordinary force of nature this woman was.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14So I'm really... I'm just so thrilled
0:58:14 > 0:58:16to have been taken on this...
0:58:18 > 0:58:21Well, it's been a roller coaster of a journey, really.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Emotionally, erm...
0:58:24 > 0:58:27but fantastic!
0:58:49 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd