0:00:02 > 0:00:04'Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock
0:00:04 > 0:00:07'is on a personal journey to trace his family story in Wales.'
0:00:10 > 0:00:14I'm looking forward with great anticipation because of the hints
0:00:14 > 0:00:18that I've been given about stories of my family -
0:00:18 > 0:00:20on both sides, I guess.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25Even when your life has been churned over in biographies and so on,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29you still retain a sense of curiosity
0:00:29 > 0:00:31about bits that are missing.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36So I'll really enjoy myself if we discover bits that are missing -
0:00:36 > 0:00:39good, bad or indifferent.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41'But can anything really prepare him
0:00:41 > 0:00:46'for what he will discover on this journey, as Neil Kinnock
0:00:46 > 0:00:48'is coming home?'
0:00:50 > 0:00:54'Later on the programme, Neil wrestles with a shocking family truth...'
0:00:54 > 0:00:57I'd like to take a magic pill
0:00:57 > 0:00:59to get back and say,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03"Great-grandmother, what the HELL were you thinking of?"
0:01:03 > 0:01:05'..meets up with old friends...'
0:01:05 > 0:01:07Amazing!
0:01:09 > 0:01:12'..and uncovers a moving family secret.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:16That I didn't know. I really didn't know that.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20'Born in 1942, the son of a South Wales coal miner,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25'Neil Kinnock rose to become Labour leader and so very nearly British Prime Minister.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30'A man passionate in his beliefs, even when taking on militants in his party.'
0:01:30 > 0:01:34A Labour council hiring taxis to scuttle round the city
0:01:34 > 0:01:38handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.
0:01:39 > 0:01:45'His political convictions have always been rooted in his Welsh family history.'
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Why am I
0:01:47 > 0:01:49the first Kinnock
0:01:49 > 0:01:52in a thousand generations
0:01:52 > 0:01:54to be able to get to university?
0:01:54 > 0:01:58'Today, Neil Kinnock is heading to Tredegar,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00'his home town.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03'He has a special reason for making this journey.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07'He lost both parents 40 years ago this year,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10'and as an only child, he's now become aware
0:02:10 > 0:02:14'that he's the last of the Kinnocks to come from South Wales.'
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Recently, and very sadly, my last two surviving aunts...
0:02:19 > 0:02:24..the last survivors of my parents' generation of relations,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27died in March and in April.
0:02:28 > 0:02:34That does mean something in terms of my relationship to the valley communities.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37And in November and December this year,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41there'll be the 40th anniversary of my parents' deaths,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44within a couple of days of each other.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49And so...that kind of...memory
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and the very recent alteration...
0:02:54 > 0:02:56..makes me want to take stock.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'The story begins with Neil's mother, Mary Howells,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05'a district nurse from Aberdare with deep Welsh roots.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09'In 1938, she married into the Kinnock family.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13'Her husband was Gordon Kinnock, a coal miner from Tredegar.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17'The Kinnock clan were originally from Scotland, but moved to Bristol,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21'where Neil's grandfather, Archie Kinnock, was born.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25'Later, Archie would move to Tredegar, South Wales.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:30I used to go and stay with my grandpa, Archie,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32in Vale Terrace in Tredegar,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35so I got lots of stories from him.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40'The manager of Archie's coal mine lived here in some splendour
0:03:40 > 0:03:43'at Bedwellty House, now a heritage centre.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47'Neil has come to meet with genealogist Mike Churchill-Jones,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50'who has traced his family back to the 1690s.'
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Your Kinnock family name is obviously Scottish.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59You come from a long line of shoemakers in Perth in Scotland.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Your second great-grandfather
0:04:02 > 0:04:06is shown as a shoe and boot maker, employing ten men.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11'The Kinnocks would come south when Neil's great-grandfather, William,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14'brought the family to Bristol.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16'Here, he married Emily Hayman.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19'Emily was Neil's great-grandmother,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22'and later would have a huge role to play
0:04:22 > 0:04:25'in the fate of the Kinnock family.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28'Between them, Emily and William had a large family.'
0:04:28 > 0:04:30William Gordon and Emily,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34they had ten children, I believe.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38The important one for us is your grandfather, Archibald James,
0:04:38 > 0:04:40who was born 1882.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43He came down...
0:04:43 > 0:04:46He moved from Bristol to this part of the country. Any idea why?
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Because he quarrelled hideously with his father
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and, literally, ran away.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55He was over 16 by that time.
0:04:55 > 0:05:00Got down to Bristol docks and was looking for a ship.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02And the only one under steam...
0:05:02 > 0:05:08- LAUGHING:- ..was the ferry across the Bristol Channel into Cardiff.
0:05:08 > 0:05:14He was hoping he'd eventually get to the United States or Canada or wherever.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16He ended up in Cardiff
0:05:16 > 0:05:20and they told him that "There's gold in them there hills!"
0:05:20 > 0:05:24He got up to Tredegar and starting working in Ty Trist colliery.
0:05:24 > 0:05:31'In fact, Mike Churchill-Jones suspects that this story Neil learnt from his grandfather
0:05:31 > 0:05:33'is almost certainly not true.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37'But that's something Neil will learn later on his journey.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41'He will uncover not only the truth about Archie, his grandfather,
0:05:41 > 0:05:47'but also two of Archie's brothers, Harold and Wilfred Kinnock -
0:05:47 > 0:05:52'a story that will lead Neil to uncover a hidden family fortune.
0:05:52 > 0:05:58'Finally, on his mother Mary's side, the family name was Howells.'
0:05:58 > 0:06:04This side was much darker to me, the Howells side, than the Kinnock side,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09simply because we never got round to talking about their background.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11These were West Walian Howells.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15- Yeah. - That's going to be your next stop.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19You'll find out a lot more about how they lived their life.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22- This is absolutely fascinating. - I'm glad you like it.- Yeah.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28'To discover the story of his Howells family, Neil travels to Kidwelly,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30'where there's a surprise.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33'For the first time, Neil is about to see
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'the tinplate works, where generations of his family laboured.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40'Today, the works is a museum.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45'Researching the Howells family has been social historian Chris Delaney,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48'who takes Neil to see a special place in his family story.'
0:06:48 > 0:06:52This is the hot mills, where your great-grandfather worked,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55where Thomas Howells worked as a furnace man.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00The work that he did, to supply the hot bars to the rolling mills,
0:07:00 > 0:07:07the rolling mills and the rest of the steam engines all survive.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Now, I worked 50 years ago in Ebbw Vale steelworks,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14- in the hot mill, at one stage. - Right.- Rolling.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17How does this differ from what I was doing?
0:07:17 > 0:07:20This was making tinplate by hand.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25Here, you had a mill crew, which your great-grandfather was part of.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29They were the elite. They were the people who set the pace.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32They needed to produce the tinplate from the bar
0:07:32 > 0:07:37for the rest of this works to make money and for people to take home decent wages.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44'The owner of the works was this man, Daniel Chivers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46'He founded the site in the 1870s.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51'An enlightened employer, he built a model village for the workers,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55'believing good working conditions were the key to productivity.'
0:07:55 > 0:07:59What were living conditions like in that new town?
0:07:59 > 0:08:03The new-built houses weren't thrown up, they were well constructed.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08Chivers, the Chivers family, was a very paternalistic industrialist.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11They helped with the chapels,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16founded a number of institutions, so they would have built good quality housing of the time.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21'So why did the Howells family leave for Aberdare in South Wales?'
0:08:21 > 0:08:24The problem is the Americans.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29In order to help their own industry, which was young and growing, they brought in tariffs.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Absolutely devastated the Welsh industry.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36So the reason why I think of my family as coming from Aberdare
0:08:36 > 0:08:39- is American protectionism.- Yes.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43You can blame the McKinley tariffs for your Aberdare connection.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47'Next, Neil is travelling from west Wales
0:08:47 > 0:08:52'back to Tredegar, where he will learn of a shocking revelation in his tree.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56'Growing up, Neil's grandfather, Archie,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58'with his father, Gordon, and mother, Mary,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03'all instilled in Neil the importance of education.'
0:09:03 > 0:09:07So far as my parents and grandparents are concerned,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10education was the jewel.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14It was the key. It was the avenue. It was the access.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16It was the stairway.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18'Growing up, Neil concluded
0:09:18 > 0:09:23'that generations of the Kinnocks were denied a good education,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27'something that became the bedrock of his political beliefs.'
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Why am I
0:09:29 > 0:09:31the first Kinnock
0:09:31 > 0:09:36in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?
0:09:36 > 0:09:40I was acutely aware of the fact that my parents particularly,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42but my family generally,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46had been denied anything like those opportunities,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51despite their manifest intelligence and talents.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54'In fact, Neil is about to learn
0:09:54 > 0:09:59'that one of his family did receive a privileged education.
0:09:59 > 0:10:06'Back at Tredegar's old council chambers, he meets again with genealogist Mike Churchill-Jones.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10'What Neil is to learn concerns the Kinnock side of his family.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12'The story begins in Bristol,
0:10:12 > 0:10:17'and the death of Neil's great-grandfather, William Kinnock, in 1892.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21'His widow Emily was left with ten children to bring up,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23'including Archie, Neil's grandfather,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26'and his brothers, Harold and Wilfred.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31'Emily made what must have been a heartbreaking decision,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35'to abandon one of her sons, Wilfred, to an orphanage.'
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Archie's brother, Wilfred,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39at the age of two,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43was put by his mother, Emily,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46into a "waifs and strays" home.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51That I didn't know. I really didn't know that.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53That's...
0:10:53 > 0:10:55deeply miserable.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Good God!
0:11:00 > 0:11:02'Neil's grandfather, Archie,
0:11:02 > 0:11:07'was aged nine when his brother, Wilfred, was taken to the orphanage.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11'Archie would also have known what happened to his brother, Harold.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15'Emily sent Harold away, too, but not to the orphanage.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20'Remarkably, she sent HIM
0:11:20 > 0:11:25'to one of England's oldest and most prestigious public schools.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30'Founded in 1553 by Edward, son of Tudor King Henry VIII,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35'King Edward's School in Surrey is still a thriving public school.
0:11:35 > 0:11:41'This is a story Neil is about to learn for the very first time.'
0:11:41 > 0:11:45We find that Harold Bruce Kinnock,
0:11:45 > 0:11:51bearing in mind that your grandfather finds his way to the mines of Tredegar,
0:11:51 > 0:11:57Wilfred is in a waifs and strays home, we find Harold
0:11:57 > 0:12:01in one of the most exclusive private schools
0:12:01 > 0:12:03- in England.- Good lord!
0:12:03 > 0:12:10He started boarding there in 1898 until around 1902.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14So he was in Surrey, in a very exclusive boarding school.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19One is in a waifs and strays home
0:12:19 > 0:12:24- and the other one is in an exclusive public school?- Indeed.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28- How would you explain that?- I've no idea. It's impossible to explain.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32When you compare it with the fortunes of the rest of the family.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37By then, Archie was having his quarrels with his father
0:12:37 > 0:12:39and was getting ready to run away.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43'But is this story really true?
0:12:43 > 0:12:49'Did Neil's grandfather run away from home to escape his bullying father,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51'William Kinnock?
0:12:51 > 0:12:54'In fact, it appears William Kinnock had died
0:12:54 > 0:12:59'many years before Archie made his trip to Wales.'
0:12:59 > 0:13:06He's died in 1892, so it's nine years later that Archie finds his way to Tredegar.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08So...
0:13:08 > 0:13:13can we really say that it's because he fell out with his father?
0:13:13 > 0:13:15That was the story in the family.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23Looking at that, I would say that the crux of the problems that led Archie to Tredegar,
0:13:23 > 0:13:29the fact that Wilfred finds himself in what is effectively an orphanage.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34- Yes.- It's something to do with favouritism by the mother.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36- Yes.- Her favourite son is Harold.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Yeah.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41On the back of having such a good education,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44he found himself as a civil servant.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48Good lord! So he would have been a civil servant
0:13:48 > 0:13:52- in the years before the First World War?- Indeed.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Amazing.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59But what this proves is that you weren't the first Kinnock
0:13:59 > 0:14:02to have a good education behind you.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Well, going to THIS school
0:14:07 > 0:14:12doesn't NATURALLY convey the fact that it's a good education.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17'Of her ten children, it's hard to imagine
0:14:17 > 0:14:21'why Emily chose such different paths for two of her sons,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24'decisions that had far-reaching consequences
0:14:24 > 0:14:26'for both Harold and Wilfred.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30'But how much of a surprise has this been for Neil?'
0:14:30 > 0:14:35I really didn't know that one of my grandfather's brothers
0:14:35 > 0:14:40lived in an orphanage for many years.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And that the other one
0:14:43 > 0:14:45went to a public school.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49There are lots of extraordinary things about this...
0:14:49 > 0:14:52segment of history, that are a revelation.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58'These stories have challenged some of Neil's most cherished beliefs,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01'and go to the heart of his political and family life.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07'He would dearly love to be able to speak to his grandfather, Archie,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11'and ask him why he didn't share these important stories with him.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14'But Archie died when Neil was a teenager,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16'and Neil lost his father, Gordon,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20'and mother, Mary, whilst still in his 20s.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26'His mother passed away within a few days of her husband.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29'Neil believes she died of a broken heart.'
0:15:29 > 0:15:32At the end of November this year
0:15:32 > 0:15:37will be the 40th anniversary of my parents' deaths,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40within a few days of each other.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44Which, of course, was utterly shattering.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47'Neil knows that as an only child,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51'he is the last of the Kinnocks to come from Tredegar.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56'Even his family home, the prefab house where he grew up, has been demolished.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01'He's aware that his links with his beloved home town are ebbing away.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05'But even 40 years on, in a strong community like Tredegar,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10'Neil is never far from people who remember his parents fondly -
0:16:10 > 0:16:14'including retired milkman Trevor Jones, known as Trevor the Milk.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19'He has a surprise - a surviving photograph of Neil's family home.'
0:16:19 > 0:16:22That's the prefabs. Amazing!
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Our house, number one.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Morgans, number four here.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Davis, number three.
0:16:29 > 0:16:35- Great days!- I remember your mother visiting patients up there.- Indeed.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41- Cromwell Roberts lived over here. - Cromwell Roberts! Ambulance driver! - That's right.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43- It's great to see you.- Oh, yes.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48'Neil is back on the trail of his grandfather Archie's story.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51'For this, he must travel to Bristol,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54'to the town where Archie grew up.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01'In Bristol, Neil is here to learn of his grandfather Archie's parents,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04'both Emily and William Kinnock.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10'William Kinnock was a military man and later an accountant.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15'Despite his outward respectability, in 1892, amazingly,
0:17:15 > 0:17:21'he died here, in this workhouse in the Stapleton area of Bristol,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24'a place reserved for the very poorest in society.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28'The workhouse still stands today.
0:17:29 > 0:17:35'It's always been Neil's belief his great-grandfather died of drink.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39'But what has historian Peter Higginbotham managed to unearth?'
0:17:39 > 0:17:43We've got a death certificate here
0:17:43 > 0:17:46of your great-grandfather,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48William Gordon Kinnock, 1892.
0:17:48 > 0:17:54He died in the Bristol city workhouse, Stapleton.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Now, the cause of death
0:17:57 > 0:18:02was ulcerated legs, weak heart, exhaustion.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04Drink.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08- You think that was the reason? - It was booze. Yeah.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12- The other thing we know about him, he wasn't penniless.- Oh.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17He had 130 quid to his name after he died.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20- £30,000 in today's prices.- Right.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25You couldn't just come into a workhouse. There was a means test.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29The best explanation is
0:18:29 > 0:18:33that William wanted a bit of free medical treatment.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37He almost certainly had the interview with the officer,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42- but didn't really...- Disclose. - ..come clean about what he had tucked away.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46'So Neil's great-grandfather, William Kinnock,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49'was prepared to live out his days in the workhouse,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53'a place of last resort for the very poor, even though he had money
0:18:53 > 0:18:56'and could have avoided this miserable end.'
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Really, he could afford a private doctor,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03but decided he'd have some cut-price medical care.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07I can't say I'm proud of THAT particular antecedent.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15'After William died, his widow Emily appears to have continued to hide
0:19:15 > 0:19:17'the family wealth,
0:19:17 > 0:19:24'throwing herself on the mercy of charity to send Archie to poor school and Wilfred to the orphanage.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'But with ten children to support,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30'it was only Harold who she chose to send to public school.'
0:19:30 > 0:19:34The way she dealt with at least one of her children was bizarre,
0:19:34 > 0:19:39sending him to an orphanage when he wasn't an orphan.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Another one, she got into public school somehow.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48All of that was occurring and at the same time,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51um...if there's any...
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Well, it wouldn't amount to insanity.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58..any bizarreness, any weirdness
0:19:58 > 0:20:02in the family, I suppose that's the strain.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06- I'm very glad it's died out. - HE CHUCKLES
0:20:06 > 0:20:10'Could it be that this story of family injustice
0:20:10 > 0:20:14'is why Archie passed on the importance of education
0:20:14 > 0:20:19'to his young grandson, Neil Kinnock, something that would guide
0:20:19 > 0:20:22'the rest of his political life?
0:20:24 > 0:20:27'Now, Neil is travelling back to Wales,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31'where he will learn the final chapter in his story,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34'and the effects of World War I on the Kinnock family.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37'His grandfather, Archie, as a coal miner,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39'was in a reserved occupation.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42'His brother, Harold, was a civil servant in London.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46'And Wilfred? What had become of him?
0:20:46 > 0:20:49'By now, he'd become a professional soldier
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'in one of Wales's most famous regiments.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56'To learn of Wilfred's story,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59'Neil is travelling across the Brecon Beacons.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06'He's come to the heart of Brecon town,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09'to the museum of the South Wales Borderers.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16'Neil will shortly learn that he's here
0:21:16 > 0:21:20'because this is the regiment Wilfred Kinnock joined before the First World War.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25'But was it the promise of comradeship that drew Wilfred,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29'the boy from the orphanage, to join up?
0:21:29 > 0:21:32'Neil's here to follow the story
0:21:32 > 0:21:36'of his grandfather Archie's brother, Wilfred Kinnock.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38'Wilfred joined the South Wales Borderers
0:21:38 > 0:21:41'four years before the outbreak of World War I.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44'Although Neil doesn't yet know it,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48'this portrait is of Wilfred's commanding officer.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51'Neil joins Mike Churchill-Jones.'
0:21:51 > 0:21:56Wilfred joined the South Wales Borderers in 1910.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00- So he was a regular soldier.- Yeah. - Joined the 1st Battalion.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02He never rose above the rank of private.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06He fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Um...
0:22:09 > 0:22:14During one of those battles, the Battle of the Somme in July 1916,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17he fought in a battle at Memetz Wood.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22- Memetz Wood, obviously, was a very bloody battle.- Yes.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Across three battalions, 400 South Wales Borderers lost their lives.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Great casualties in the Welsh regiments.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35'The odds were stacked firmly against Wilfred, but...'
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Miraculously, he survived that battle.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43- So maybe his luck was finally changing.- Mm.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49'In fact, Archie, Harold AND Wilfred Kinnock all lived through the war
0:22:49 > 0:22:54'to the final call for peace by the Germans in October 1918.'
0:22:54 > 0:22:57We've got Emily, who's probably...
0:22:57 > 0:23:02- She's overjoyed.- Yes. - Her sons have survived the war.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06'The front page of the Western Mail proclaimed the good news.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13'This headline was dated Monday October 7 1918.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18'The following day, October 8, the regimental diary also recorded...'
0:23:18 > 0:23:22"Kinnock Wilfred Hayman. Nationality, United Kingdom.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26"Rank, private. Regiment, South Wales Borderers.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28"Aged 27.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36"Date of death, 8th October 1918."
0:23:41 > 0:23:45- The day the war ended, or shortly afterwards.- That was...
0:23:45 > 0:23:49The Armistice, as you know, was on 11th November.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58'Although Wilfred was killed on October 8th,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02'Emily would have known nothing of this tragedy until notified later
0:24:02 > 0:24:07'by a letter from his commanding officer.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11'In the midst of national celebration of peace,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14'Emily would receive news that Wilfred,
0:24:14 > 0:24:20'the child she had given up to the orphanage, had died
0:24:20 > 0:24:22'in the very last days of the war.'
0:24:22 > 0:24:27- That's the Victory medal, isn't it? - The Military medal...
0:24:27 > 0:24:32'Emily would receive Wilfred's medals posthumously,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34'along with a memorial plaque,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38'one of over a million issued to the families of the fallen.'
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Well...
0:24:41 > 0:24:44- Did you know about Wilfred? - No. I didn't know about Wilfred.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48- He didn't have a very lucky life, did he?- He didn't.- No.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51Especially to be robbed of it
0:24:51 > 0:24:54when the war was effectively over.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59- Do you think Archie would have known? - Archie would have known about it.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05I just feel sorry for Wilfred. His father dies when he's two.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10He's in an orphanage from the age of four
0:25:10 > 0:25:13till at least 14.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15And...
0:25:15 > 0:25:19then he joins the army.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25He served under the colours for four years, five years,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29from the age of 22, 23, and then he died.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31'With ten children to bring up,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35'Emily chose to place Wilfred in an orphanage,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37'but she would never have forgotten him.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41'He alone had been christened with her family name, Hayman.'
0:25:41 > 0:25:45He's the only child with the mother's name.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49She effectively abandons him when he's four years of age.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53This is why, in this whole experience,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55I'd like to take a magic pill
0:25:55 > 0:25:58to get back and say,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02"Great-grandmother, what the HELL were you thinking of?
0:26:02 > 0:26:04"Why did you have to do it?"
0:26:11 > 0:26:14'Neil was so close to his grandfather, Archie,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19'but there's so much in the family story that he didn't share with him.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22'Maybe he was protecting him from his past.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25'Now, nearly at the end of his journey,
0:26:25 > 0:26:30'how much has this changed what Neil knew of his family story?'
0:26:30 > 0:26:34All the messages given to me by my grandfather,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39to whom I was very close, knew very well and loved very much,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43were that he detested, despised his father.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46So much so that the impression that I gathered
0:26:46 > 0:26:50and have carried in all the decades since,
0:26:50 > 0:26:5251 years,
0:26:52 > 0:26:59have been that my grandfather ran away from a bullying father.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03But he was only nine when his father died.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06And so, that is an invention,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09unconscious invention, of my imagination.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15'Neil has learnt revealing stories of distant ancestors
0:27:15 > 0:27:18'and close family,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22'and the events that brought the Kinnocks to Wales.
0:27:22 > 0:27:28'Now, with his journey over, how does Neil feel about coming home?'
0:27:28 > 0:27:31I've been very fortunate, privileged, indeed,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33to have my story told,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37but never with the fullness that's been available
0:27:37 > 0:27:40as a consequence of Coming Home.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44My children and grandchildren will thoroughly enjoy it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48My preoccupation has always been with the future.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Now we can feel
0:27:50 > 0:27:55bitter, angry about some of the past.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00But it's tomorrow that matters.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04And part of my children and grandchildren's tomorrow
0:28:04 > 0:28:06is where they came from.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11So they already want to know and see,
0:28:11 > 0:28:13and they do and they will.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:24 > 0:28:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk