Charles Dale Coming Home

Actor Charles Dale is on a journey into his family's history in Wales.

Brought up in Tenby, Charles's voyage starts in Pembrokeshire.

I'm looking forward to getting the answers

to some questions that have intrigued me for several years.

Charles rose to fame in Coronation Street

and is currently in the nation's favourite hospital drama, Casualty,

as Big Mac, the porter.

I'm very interested in finding out about my grandfather,

who served in the First World War, as a very young man,

which I know but that's about the size of it,

that's about all I know really, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Later in Coming Home...

Charles discovers some new ancestors...

What did you do with the money? Where's it gone?

..searches for a man who disappeared...

He's the first of the bad ones that we found in the Dale closet.

..and wonders who he's related to.

All I'm saying is, my uncle Hugh

had the best afro I've ever seen on a white man.

Charles's journey starts in South Pembrokeshire

in the seaside parish of Llanstadwell.

I never knew I had any relatives in this neck of the woods.

But Charles is in for a surprise

when he meets genealogist, Mike Churchill-Jones.

-Would you like to take a seat?

-Yes, definitely.

The tree!

I've been researching your family tree

and I'd like to start burn here with you, Charles Thornton Dale,

born in Tenby, to Laurence Arthur Dale and Edith Marian Hall.

Now, your mother gives you your Welsh roots.

She was born to Thomas Edward Hall and Beatrice Mary John,

who actually turn out to be first cousins.

Yes. I knew they were first cousins.

Which at the time, I suppose, was quite something but obviously,

it was legal, otherwise it would never have happened.

I always knew that and I don't have six fingers on one hand

or anything strange, so it's all right.

Sadly, Charles's mother died 20 years ago, but he's delighted

to find that her family, the Halls, come from Pembrokeshire.

Hugh Edward Hall was born in the parish you're in at the moment.

-Llanstadwell.

-So, that's why you're here.

-Right.

Hugh Hall and Jane Roch married in this very church

and this Roch family goes back to circa 1730

in a village called Walwyn's Castle.

-Pembrokeshire through and through.

-Indeed, indeed.

I've always known that my family was from Pembrokeshire

but what I've never really known is the extent of Pembrokeshire.

Charles is about to learn more about the Halls from museum curator,

Simon Hancock, who has been poring through the parish records.

Of course your ancestors, Charles, William Roch and Hugh Hall,

in their turn, were both members of at the organisation called the Parish Select Vestry.

In those days, there was no local government.

Everything was administered by the parish, so the men of property,

you had to be male and you had to be a landowner or a prosperous tradesman, did everything -

they found people for the militia, they repaired the highways

and of course, perhaps one of the most important things they did was social welfare.

So, Hugh Hall would literally collect all the money in cash from all the local landowners

and then he would disperse it to those who were destitute, ill,

and basically, people who were unemployed.

In 1824, on 14th July, Hugh Hall

refused to hand over the sum of £7 11s 7d,

which was the balance in cash that he was holding being the parish poor account.

I think he must have fallen out with the person who succeeded him, a Mr Gwyther.

Mr Gwyther was moaning, saying, I haven't had the money, Mr Hall is holding on to it.

I think they had to get a couple of magistrates in.

Do we know how it was resolved or where that £7 went?

I think the £7 was probably soon returned to the Parish Treasury

because the minutes make no more reference to it.

So, Hugh hall was a rich man of standing in the parish.

But this is one that I'm sure will be of great interest to you, Charles.

And Mary... Oh, Jane Hall. Right.

-And of course, Hugh...

-Who's her husband.

-..outlived her by 10 years, and he died in 1853 and he lived to the ripe old age of 82.

-Very good.

-Which was very old in those days.

-Very old in those days.

I'm pleased to see going through the family tree that there's quite a lot of longevity in this family.

-And that augurs well.

-I'm hoping. If the heart holds out.

And it shows, of course, the family had money and were people of substance

because they could afford to erect a very substantial tomb slab like this.

Hello, sir. What did you do with the money? Where's it gone?

I never really thought that my ancestors

would have been anything other than little farmers, things like that possibly.

So, to know he was sort of running the parish is very interesting.

It's quite something.

'We have two cliched versions of landowners, don't we?

'We have the benevolent,'

looking after the poor people, giving out alms

and then you have the money-grabbing, "get off my land" kind of landowner.

I never know. And also, in the story of Hugh Hall at the moment,

there appears to be possibilities for two types of people.

Charles is now going to learn about the Dales,

his father's side of the family.

You father was born in 1928 and he was born

to Eric Sydney Charles Dale and Alice Mable Wiggin.

Charles's grandfather, Eric, was the son of Sydney Alfred Dale.

Sydney Alfred Dale is quite elusive to me at the moment.

-He gives us his father's name of Samuel Stephen Dale, but that's all I have at the moment.

-Right.

While the trail runs cold on Sydney Alfred Dale,

Charles learns about another paternal ancestor.

-Now, William Fletcher Roberts was a surgeon.

-Oh!

And he was married one, two, three,

which is your direct line, Eliza, four times.

-Hey, good boy!

-Yeah.

I'm loving this boy already, he's fantastic, he's married four times.

And he was a surgeon.

Charles is delighted to learn that his great-great-great grandfather

was a hit with the ladies and an apothecary surgeon.

Dr Alun Withey has been dissecting the records.

William Fletcher Roberts is a surgeon apothecary in the 19th century

and he's what we would today think of as a general practitioner, GP.

They'll minister running repairs, things like lancing boils, sometimes pulling teeth.

They'll do minor operations but this is before anaesthetics and antiseptics.

An interesting character, who's been married four times.

His 4th wife survives him.

William Fletcher Roberts, in his time as a doctor,

actually has three partnerships and actually has three partnerships dissolved.

A letter I have for you to read here relating to a defamation case

-might help us shed some light on what William Fletcher Roberts was like to work with.

-Right.

Eminent surgeon, George Moore, has clearly fallen out

with his junior partner and accuses him of acting above his station.

May, 1832.

"Sir, for some considerable length of time past I, ie, George Moore,

"have understood that you have been in the habit of giving yourself very unjustifiable airs on my subject.

"I now warn you to be careful in the extreme how you meddle with me

"otherwise, my horse whip shall teach you fondness

"if not the manners of a gentleman.

"Waiting your wishes I remain yours, etc, George Moore."

So, he's not a happy bunny!

No, a partnership gone sour there and it does seem that William

has out-stayed his welcome in the partnership

and might help us shed light on the reasons why two other partnerships as well as this were dissolved.

And according to this letter, he was a name-dropping arse, really.

It does seem that he was what my other grandfather used to call "fly".

He was a bit fly, a bit up himself

and are not averse to a bit of self-promotion.

While Charles has been learning about the wayward doctor,

genealogist Mike Churchill-Jones has been pursuing the trail of the mysterious Sydney Alfred Dale.

Do you recall from our earlier tree reading,

I was telling you about your great-grandfather, Sydney Alfred Dale?

-Yes, mysterious Sydney.

-Very elusive man.

This is his marriage certificate in 1895 to Evelyn Breakspeare.

Sydney Alfred Dale, age 22, bachelor, piano forte tuner -

oh, family history - carriage proprietor.

Indeed. So, he's basically elusive.

I've realised why - he's changed his name.

-Ah!

-He's still a Dale

but if you have a look here, this is an 1891 census listing.

The guy at the top is Samuel.

There's a man there called Abel Dale.

He's 16 years old and he's a...

..piano forte tuner.

OK. So, that's him. He was born in 1875.

-Right.

-He's lied about his year of birth on the marriage certificate.

So why did he change his name and lie about his age?

-Couldn't tell you at all.

-He's a bit dodgy, obviously. I'm liking him already.

-Good, good.

-And he was a piano tuner.

-He was indeed.

-As was my grandfather, as was my father.

-Indeed.

-He's married Evelyn in 1895.

-Right.

They've had two children, your grandfather Eric and his sister, Doris.

And some time before 1901, he's left his wife and his two children.

Mike Churchill-Jones has been talking to the family and a letter has come to light.

-So, he's changed his name and now he's done a runner from his missus.

-He's done a runner from missus.

-OK.

What we have here is this transcribed letter

that Evelyn wrote to Syd.

"Dear Syd, why when you do not want me should you ask me to return and why this cruelty?

"I cannot imagine.

"You could refuse this woman, whom you say is a terror and a devil.

"She has no claim on you and don't prevaricate."

That's a family trait!

"I have not refused to return. I asked what was only reasonable - for time.

"I have told you and I tell you again, for the last time, that I will not divorce you."

Go, girl!

"Well, you have chosen goodbye and in the long, lonely years, spare a kind thought in friendship.

"Yours sincerely, Evelyn." Bless her.

-He's run off with someone else.

-He has.

The next time we manage to pick up Sydney, Abel,

whatever you want to call the man, is he goes off to Australia in 1913.

-This is the name of the boat.

-Orama.

-Where is he on there?

-There's his name there.

-Sydney Alfred Dale.

-Off to Australia.

-Indeed.

-Very good, how's that? Very interesting.

The last thing I can really offer you,

we're looking at an electoral roll in 1914 for Victoria, New South Wales.

-If you come down to there... Dale, Sydney Alfred, Heidelberg...

-Road, I think it is.

-Ivanhoe. Traveller.

-Described as a traveller.

Interesting. So there you are, Syd.

And he's only, what, 39 years of age?

-Very frustrating.

-Very frustrating.

-So maybe he's changed it again.

-Maybe he's changed it again - Abel!

-Abel!

-He was obviously a bit able, wasn't he?

-Indeed he was.

Here, the trail really does go cold on Sydney Alfred Dale.

I think the letter from Evelyn is lovely, because right at the end of it,

she just basically says, don't be horrible to me, don't do this to me, it's not fair

and then she says, but I hope you'll be all right and basically, ever your friend.

It's an extraordinary thing for somebody to do who's been treated that appallingly.

He's the first of the bad ones that we found in the Dale closet.

I've always felt that the Dales have something of the dark side about them.

I think as an actor it's always been useful to kind of draw on that dark side.

The Dales are quite acerbic, they're quite ruthless,

they're quite sarcastic, they can be, and usually it's done with love

but occasionally, it comes out the other way.

As I say, it's very useful to have that kind of thing to draw on as an actor,

because occasionally, you will come across those people

that are through and through bad and I always rather enjoy that.

Smashing.

Now that could seriously damage your health.

Another Dale that Charles is curious about is Sydney's son,

Charles's grandfather, Eric.

I'd like to find out more about Eric's war service, I think. I know very little.

I know he was a gunner and I know he fought during the First World War.

There's a sort of family rumour about some kind of decoration but nobody really knows the whole thing.

He didn't generally talk about it.

But Mike Churchill-Jones has opened Eric Dale's war record.

He volunteered. He went to the territorial office in Kidderminster in 1915

and he volunteered and they put him in the 2nd South Midland brigade.

That regiment, one of the battles it was in was the Battle of the Somme.

On 9th July, Eric was sent on a signalling course, till the 22nd.

While he was away, this occurred.

The 2nd South Midland Division.

The first major action in which the Division was engaged turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.

An attack was made on 19th July 1916 at Fromelles.

The division suffered very heavy casualties for no significant gain

and no enemy reserves were diverted from the Somme.

Such was the damage to the division and its reputation

that it was not used again, other than for holding trenches, until 1917.

-So it was a disaster.

-Absolutely was.

-But he was on a course at the time.

-Wasn't his fault!

-No, not his fault. Glad he wasn't there. Gosh.

It's a strange feeling because I've read quite a lot of military history

about the First World War and while I would,

from my perspective, I would say he's one of the luckiest men in the world,

I'm sure from his perspective, he felt otherwise because all his mates

would have been there and they would have died and he would have been...

A lot died and I think it would have affected the rest of the unit a great deal.

There's one more thing I can show you - his conduct sheet.

Absent from 9am Parade until 9:15am. 15 minutes!

-Deprived three days' pay. 15 minutes. That's it.

-That's it.

That's all he did, all through the First World War, and he got docked Three days' pay.

So, my conclusion there is,

yes, he won his medals and he was a brave man in that respect

-but there's no distinguished service.

-There's no distinguished service.

But these are Eric Dale's actual service medals.

I really don't think...

It doesn't matter, because if the regiment was used again in 1917,

that would have still been another year till the end of the war

so he still would have seen the most extraordinary things

and to come out of that the other side is still a fairly phenomenal thing to do.

The Great War for Civilisation.

My grandfather could be quite... He could be quite a cold man.

He was quite... I don't know if the right word is stentorious,

he was quite strict, almost Victorian sometimes.

Um, and...finding out about Fromelles, I think,

being sent home just before the Battle of the Somme,

to come back to find all your mates are dead,

I think that's probably going to fill him full of what we would call now survivor's guilt

and you can't go through those things,

both the survival and the horror of what was a truly awful and terrible war,

without being deeply, deeply affected by it.

Eric moved to Tenby after the First World War to work as a piano tuner.

He married Mabel in 1924 and presumed his military days were over.

For Charles, there's another relative that has always intrigued him.

One of the things I'm very keen to find out about is

in this old family album, there is this gentleman here.

And we need to find out

whether he was a visitor

or a member of the family.

And I don't know, but all I'm saying is,

my Uncle Huw had the best Afro I've ever seen on a white man.

So...

If genealogy can't make the connection,

there may be something that can -

DNA.

This tiny sample will be enough to identify Charles' ancestry.

It's sent to Oxford University for analysis.

This swab can reveal Charles'

exact ancestral make-up.

After volunteering for duty in World War I,

Charles' grandfather, Eric Dale, was too old for active service

during World War II.

But the war came to Tenby, and veteran John Tipton remembers.

-How are you, sir?

-I'm fine, thanks.

-I've come down here to tell you something about World War II in Tenby.

-Ah, lovely.

-Yes.

-And really about an exercise called Exercise Jantzen.

-Mm-hm.

Operation Jantzen was in preparation for the D-Day landings.

The plot was to land two divisions of 16,000 men

and maintain them for 14 days.

Tenby was the take-off point,

-so the harbour here was full of landing craft.

-Yep.

And Tenby itself was closed down.

There was censorship of mail and nobody was allowed in and out.

While all this excitement was going on,

your grandfather was in the Home Guard.

And what did the Home Guard do?

For example, one of the things they did was to make little attacks

on the troops that were on the beaches, merely to keep them alert.

And I think the Home Guard probably did quite a few things

to do with the organisation

-of this closed-down, secretive Tenby.

-Yep.

And in fact, I've got something here to show you...

..to indicate that your grandfather was not only there

but was quite important.

"Dear Lieutenant Dale,

"it was principally due to your organising and hard work

"that this sub-district was able

"to build up a workable system of communication

"that was..."

something, "by D-Day.

"This was not an easy achievement considering the difficulties

"which had to be overcome."

-Had you ever seen that before?

-No, never.

By this time, the Home Guard was really very efficient.

-There's no Dad's Army about it at all!

-No, no, no.

And they were not called upon

but they made a very good account of themselves.

Of course, absolutely.

Charles is proud of his grandfather's contribution

during World War II,

and is about to discover more.

A few miles from Tenby, volunteers have restored

former RAF Carew Cheriton Airfield to its original state.

John Brock has news for Charles.

-Hello, sir.

-Charles! How good to see you!

-How are you?

-Good to see you.

Pembrokeshire played a vital role in the coastal defence of Britain.

Pembrokeshire, you see, had to have nine airfields

and their main job was to cover the convoys

coming into Milford Haven and Liverpool.

I was 13 when war broke out here.

I well remember them practising, the Home Guard, here.

And as youngsters, we used to laugh about

because originally they didn't have any uniform

but they had on their arms this LDV,

because they were called Local Defence Volunteers.

And as boys we were very cheeky because we used to call them

the "Look, Duck and Vanish".

We used to watch them in the evenings practising.

They were great people because a lot of them were old or very young.

-We never shot any German aircraft down here.

-No.

But I know that when there were some of the raids here,

that the Home Guards took pot-shots at them to see if they could bring them down.

October 12th, 1941.

German bombers dropped four bombs on Tenby.

Several houses were damaged.

Charles' grandfather, Eric, made his way into No.1 Queen's Parade.

Putting his own life at risk,

he managed to bring out Mrs Annie Thomas.

Sadly she was already dead.

John Brock has some documents which Charles has never seen before.

"Dear Sir,

"my committee wishes to bring to the notice of the powers that be

"what they might consider very brave conduct

"on the part of one of their members after a recent air raid here,

"who worked immediately among the debris of the bombed house

"where he knew someone was buried,

"and actually found the person although dead."

And that was from the British Legion. Isn't that wonderful.

I knew that there was a bomb in Tenby which did kill the lady

but I had no idea that Eric was one of the people that pulled her out,

so that's completely new and it's sort of nice in a way,

because after all the revelations about the First World War,

to know that he would've been able to feel like he was doing something that was worthwhile,

having missed out on the Somme and things like that.

So that's very pleasing, it's very nice.

When you listen to stories from people who were there,

it just brings it home, really, you know,

how fortunate we are that we've never gone through it.

You've just got to be very grateful to them, really. Look after them.

These stories have challenged

some of Charles' ideas about his grandfather.

He would dearly love to be able to speak to Eric now

but Eric died aged 90 in 1987.

But Charles' father, Laurie, is very much alive,

and Charles is keen to share what he's found out.

-I knew about the bomb that dropped...

-Yes.

..but I never knew that Grandpa Dale was the guy that pulled

-Mrs Thomas out...

-Mrs Thomas out, yeah.

-I never new about that.

But I just wondered, they showed me this today,

and I just wondered whether you'd ever seen that?

-No! Well, at least if I had, I'd don't remember it, you know.

-Yeah.

-Oh, that's lovely.

-It's the letter from King George.

-Yeah.

But where were you that night when the bomb went off?

-In an air raid shelter...

-Right.

-..which we had in the garden.

-What, on St John's?

-Yes.

-Ah-ha, right!

It was a very primitive thing

with a sort of corrugate iron roof covered with earth,

and it was all leaking with water so we sat there with water up to our ankles.

Right, yeah.

See, I remember when I was young,

I always used to try and ask him about stuff

and he would always deflect it and he would never...

-No.

-Did he ever say anything to you?

He never did. He was a sort of private man.

But of course, his mother,

her husband left her with these two children

and she had him fostered out to these friends of hers

who were very Victorian and very strict.

And I think maybe that's what made him the way he was.

I think what I've learnt about Eric has been very interesting

because he was not always an easy man by any stretch of the imagination.

Not a sort of cuddly grandfather type.

But when you see all the things that he's been through,

that's going to form you, especially at that young age.

So maybe I feel a little bit more kindly disposed towards him...

because nobody'll ever know the things that he saw and what he went through, really.

Except people who were there, and there aren't many of those left.

Charles was brought up in Tenby and his sister Linzi still lives here.

Er, Mrs Haverson?

Charles is almost at the end of his journey.

Good morning! Fine, thank you. How are you?

-There's a bit of a surprise!

-It is. Come on through...

Linzi has something for her brother.

Right, what's this, then?

Well, this has come for you, so I know not what.

All right, let's have a look. Let's see what they've sent me this time.

A surprise... Ah, right, I know what this is.

THIS will be the DNA results, a summary.

"Both the maternal and paternal ancestral lines are early "Northern European",

right, "with a high concentration of Celtic ancestry only.

"Your DNA sequence shows you to be a direct maternal descendant of Xenia,"

the Warrior Princess, perhaps,

"and a paternal descendant of Oisin, Celt."

So, Celt, Celt, Celt

-with a bit of Norse Viking.

-OK.

Oh, is it...

Yep, little bit of Norse Viking.

-And a little bit of Anglo-Saxon. 95.9% Celt...

-Woo!

..which, sadly...

removes any connection to this gentleman here.

Some in the album are famous and nothing to do with the family.

So it's possible this gentleman might have been

a visiting preacher...

-That would make sense...

-..and in those days pastors were famous people.

-Yeah, very highly thought of.

Brilliant. Oh, well. There we are.

So we're Vikings, Linz, but very Welsh Vikings.

-Yeah, well, that's good to know!

-HE LAUGHS

While I'm very happy to be related to a warrior princess,

and I think I'd look very fetching in buck skin, er...

No, seriously! Er... I'm very pleased.

I'm pure Celt, which is great and I've always liked that,

with a bit of Viking thrown in,

which perhaps explains some of my drinking habits in the past.

With his journey over,

how does Charles feel about coming home?

'I'm always glad when I come home.

'I've made some of the best decisions in my life sat on this rock.

'It's a place where I can come

'and have a bit of peace and quiet to think.'

How does he feel about his Welsh ancestry?

I hear people say that they're proud to be Welsh.

Well, to me, that's like saying I'm proud to be a man.

I AM Welsh.

There's nothing I would change about that.

I love what Welshness gives me -

my passion, my fire, my lyricism... Erm...

Just everything I am, you know, and those are all fantastic Welsh qualities.

I'm really pleased to see that solid Pembrokeshire line

going back through and down...

..because that's what I am.

I'm a Pembrokeshire boy, that's what we'll say.

Pembrokeshire-through-and-through boy.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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