Robert Glenister Coming Home

Travelling into South Wales' Gower Peninsula is

actor Robert Glenister, here in search of his family's past.

Robert's performances have earned him legions of fans as the star

of hit MI5 drama Spooks and as conman Ash Morgan in Hustle.

Although he grew up in London, Robert has deep Welsh roots

and it's these roots he's coming to Wales to explore.

I'm very excited actually, because I think there's...

Nobody's told me anything,

so it is a bit like a magical mystery tour.

Although he doesn't know it yet,

he's travelling into a story of remarkable heroism and courage

that would take his family to the other side of the world.

I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'm going to find out.

I don't know whether there's any skeletons or not.

So, the whole thing is a complete mystery.

Robert Glenister is coming home.

Robert begins by visiting the Gower home of his parents.

His father is television director John Glenister who's from London,

but it's his Welsh mother Joan

and her Welsh family that Robert will be researching.

How much do you know about your family, beyond your grandfather?

-Do you know much?

-Not a lot, no. Not really.

-Because you were born in Gorseinon.

-Born in Gorseinon, yes.

-And then...

-I think I was about three.

-When you moved to London?

-Yes.

-And then you were evacuated back here during the war.

-That's right.

Joan's maternal family name is Fry

and following the Fry family will lead Robert to discover

some extraordinary stories of personal duty and sacrifice.

Next stop on the journey is the pretty coastal town

of Penclawdd on the North Gower coast

and St Gwynour's church for the reading of the family tree.

Here Robert is about to learn how imbedded his family

really are in the history of this small village.

He's arranged to meet with genealogist Mike Churchill Jones.

-Hi, Robert.

-Hi.

-Welcome to Penclawdd.

-Thank you.

The reason you're in Penclawdd is

-cos it's steeped in your ancestry.

-Is it?

-Indeed.

-So we've been looking at your family tree and this is it.

-Wow.

Straightaway, Robert can see that he has

deep Welsh roots on his mother's side.

You've got a great Welsh line.

You can go back to your seven times great-grandfather

who was a native of the Gower.

Robert has family in Carmarthenshire,

Swansea and the Gower,

with strong Welsh names including Lewis, Hopkins and Davies.

But Mike is concentrating his research on Robert's Fry family,

here in the village of Penclawdd.

The story begins with his four times great-grandparents,

Mary and Richard Fry, who was a coal miner.

They had a son, John Fry,

who was Robert's great-great-great-grandfather.

Now, John Fry was born 1832 in Penclawdd,

and died here in 1894.

But he had the occupation of many people in Penclawdd, which was...

-Collier.

-He was a miner, yes. He worked down the mine.

There is a lot for Robert to learn about his Fry family,

but to get him started on his journey,

Mike Churchill Jones tells him about

his great-grandfather David Fry,

someone Robert knew as a child.

David John Fry was born 1880 in Penclawdd,

and he didn't die until 1967, so you would have known him.

I remember this very, very old man,

very, very dapper in a three-piece pinstripe suit.

White moustache, white hair. And I remember his presence.

That's all I remember.

-I can only have been about five or six, because he died in '67.

-He did.

I was born in '60. But I do have an image of him, yeah.

-His initial occupation is as a stonemason.

-I saw that.

-So he was a skilled...

-He was a skilled man.

There was an artistic element to him,

as opposed to just an engineering quality, as well.

-Indeed.

-That's interesting.

First Robert is heading from Penclawdd,

to visit the nearby 16th century Oxwich Castle.

He's learned he comes from a long line of stonemasons.

Stonemasonry is an ancient art form,

little changed over thousands of years.

It has always been a highly skilled job.

Modern building sites are a world away from the kind of work Robert's family did.

But on an historic site like Oxwich Castle,

the restoration work here can give Robert a real feel for the job.

Given the fact that you still employ the traditional methods

in stonemasonry, do you still use tools that would have been

used when my ancestors would have been stonemasons?

Very much so. Yeah, very much so.

This job we've done all hammer and chisel and mallet and what not.

There's been no modern methods at all.

We've done it exactly how it would have been done, really.

-Can I have a go and will you show me what to do?

-I certainly will.

The generations of Robert's family that worked with stone

are long gone, but here on the castle renovation,

there is at least a chance for Robert to handle

and use the tools with which they would have been so familiar.

You're a natural! Very good.

It's quite slippery, isn't it?

-If you hold it at...

-More of an angle? Like that?

That's about right.

You keep working that all the way through to there

and then you'd be coming across with the fine chisel after that.

So how long would this take to do?

How long would this block take to complete?

Well, this, you'd do this in a few hours, really.

-Would you?

-Yeah, no problem at all.

Robert is working on a very special part of the restoration.

It's the lintel, which will be placed over the main entrance of the castle.

A privilege for any stonemason

and a repair that will last for millennia.

Aaagh! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It's all right.

Well done. That's brilliant for...

Thank you. No, it's been great.

So you've contributed to part of the castle.

So, the next time I come down here with my family

-I can point at that when it's up there and say, "I helped to do that."

-Yeah, definitely.

Robert is back in Penclawdd and on the trail of his Fry family.

His three times great-grandparents were Mary and John Fry.

John was a coal miner, as was his grandson, William Fry.

William worked in Penclawdd as a coal miner

in the years leading up to the First World War

and Mike Churchill Jones has been researching his story.

The first document I'd like to show you is a 1911 census listing.

And it shows William Fry...

..and he was a coal miner hewer at the time.

On the eve of World War One, William was keen to join the British Army.

At that time, coal mining was not a reserved occupation

and many thousands of miners were hoping to enlist when the time came.

But for William, there was a problem.

-He says that he tried...

-Oh, yes.

-..to sign up.

But William was deemed to be too short.

We do know how tall he was.

There's some personal details about him. Do you want have a read?

Oh, he was aged 30.

30 years and five months. Height, 5 foot 2 and a quarter.

-Not the tallest man in the world.

-Not the tallest man in the world.

Hm-mm.

It appears William Fry would never be able to serve in the army

and would seek a new life far beyond Wales.

He actually, sometime after that in 1914,

he made the decision to actually emigrate,

and he actually went to Liverpool and got on a ship called the Afric

and sailed to Sydney in Australia.

Wow!

That's a huge leap, isn't it?

And he sailed on 16th July 1914.

-When did war break out?

-It was approximately six weeks after that.

It was after that, wasn't it? That's right.

So just weeks before the outbreak of World War One,

William Fry was leaving Penclawdd,

sailing away to the other side of the world,

far away from the looming conflict in Europe.

But there is more to William's story than Mike has so far revealed.

First Robert is off to learn more

about his ancestral home of Penclawdd,

which sits along the Loughor Estuary, on the Gower coast.

No-one knows more about Penclawdd than local historian Rod Cooper,

who has taken him to the hillside overlooking the town.

Well, that's a view and a half.

So how different would this view have been when my ancestors lived here?

There would be a fantastic difference.

This is the old centre of the village

and the turnpike road used to run down to the front, just over there.

And in some ways, it's still the heart of the village,

-but that was the old village.

-Mm.

And the new village built up across over there,

and that was where the copper works were and the tin plate works

at the end of the 19th century,

and the new village built up around that,

because it was convenient for people.

You see, it started off as a port,

and you can just see over there where Loughor Bridge is,

the river used to come from Loughor Bridge

straight across to this shore here

and would run hard along the foreshore,

and that meant that vessels could come up at most states of the tide.

They could lie on the bottom of the pill,

as it was called out there then, load up with coal

straight into the holes or go to the dock, which was just up there.

-Mm-hm.

-And, you know, that added again

to the character of the village and the busyness of the village.

It really was a thriving, important place.

Penclawdd may have been a flourishing village,

but at the start of World War One,

William Fry had left here for the other side of the world.

In Australia, he had the chance of a new life,

far form the threat of war in Europe.

But just a year later, William made a remarkable decision,

as Mike Churchill Jones has unearthed.

He made a decision to join the Australian Army...

Wow.

..In July 1915.

Right.

He joined the 53rd Battalion...

BOTH: ..of the Australian Imperial Force.

So he would have joined knowing that he would have been sent to Europe

to fight, potentially.

-Probably so. Why did he make that decision?

-That's right.

William had finally managed to enlist in the army.

As part of the Empire,

Australia was also at war with Germany,

but there was no compulsory conscription.

William was clearly volunteering to head back to Europe,

to fight for King and his new country.

By July 1916, William was travelling to France, and to war.

Now Robert has a chance to get into the fresh air,

to learn something of his female ancestors and their way of life.

Whilst the men of Penclawdd like John Fry dug for coal,

the women of the village, including his sisters

Elizabeth and Mary, sought their living from the sea,

from the riches beneath their feet on the Loughor Estuary.

-Hi, Robert, how are you?

-I'm all right, Glyn. How are you doing?

Robert joins with expert Glyn Hyndman

and he's taking Robert on something of a mystery tour

far out to the estuary mud flats.

The route they're driving along was under water

just a few minutes before, but now the tide is out,

which means there's a chance for Glyn to explain more

about Penclawdd's unique industry of cockling.

Glyn still hand picks all the cockles he gathers,

using identical techniques to Robert's ancestors,

Mary and Elizabeth Fry.

So, braving a gale, Glyn can reveal everything

he knows about Penclawdd's much-loved delicacy.

-You sometimes come out here for six, eight hours at a time?

-Oh, yeah.

-In these conditions?

-Oh, yeah. Worse than this.

-Worse than this?

GLYN LAUGHS

And then, I mean, when my ancestors were doing it,

presumably it was mainly women who did the job?

-Oh, yeah.

-And they would do it with donkeys and carts, not Land Rovers.

No. It's a lot easier now than what it was then,

but as you say, they'd come out here with a donkey or a horse and cart

and they'd probably gather cockles better than the men.

-Know what I mean?

-Yeah, yeah.

Especially when they were a bit thinner on the ground.

They'd persevere a bit more.

And they would have to do that every day, because if they didn't,

-they wouldn't eat.

-Well, yeah, you wouldn't eat.

You'd either come out here and get something for the family,

because there was no social security in them days.

-Know what I mean?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Obviously, here are the cockles coming together here now.

They'd probably gather at the time in the region of about 200,

300 kilos a day.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Lift them on the cart or put them on the back of the donkey,

and that was it, but it was a hard old life for them, like.

But it must...with a donkey and cart, it must have taken...

I mean, on a day like this, or if not worse, it must have taken

a couple of hours just to get out here before you start work.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And then you've got the back-breaking work

in front of you again.

Then you've got to get them off there, then you've got to cook them.

And then you've got to start again,

so, you know, they were tough old cookies.

It might traditionally have been seen as women's work

for Robert's ancestors Mary and Elizabeth Fry,

but how easy is it for a London actor to do the same work?

That's...that's... Try and keep your water.

-As you're raking?

-Like that, see?

-Got you.

You're pulling your cockles into your water all the time, see?

Yeah, yeah.

Got it. Right. And then the rake goes down.

-I think you're a natural, Rob.

-ROBERT LAUGHS

-It's in the blood, see?

-It is. Once there, you never lose it.

What are you doing next week(?)

THEY LAUGH

There you go. Supper.

There you are!

Like his ancestors,

it's time for Robert to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

-Tuck in there, Rob.

-I will.

Look at those. Look at those.

Straight off the beach

and after just a couple of minutes cooking,

the cockles are ready to eat.

-Ohhh!

-Bit hairy, are they?

Bit hot!

Mmm.

-What do you think of them?

-They're just so sweet, aren't they?

They're gorgeous.

I don't need any lunch.

The camera crew can go to lunch. I'll stay here.

So how has this experience helped Robert to understand

what daily life was like for his ancestors Mary and Elizabeth?

Oh, it's extraordinary. I mean,

we were out there, and it's a nice day, but out there,

it's blowing a force ten gale and it's cold,

and we were out there for about an hour,

and we were in warm coats, boots, waterproofs, everything.

When my ancestors were doing it,

it was predominantly women who did it so many hundreds of years ago.

And they were out there, they had no waterproofs,

they had no real protection against the weather.

And today is quite benign, because, I mean,

they would go out come rain or shine.

Robert is back on the trail of his ancestral cousin William Fry.

At the start of World War One,

William had been turned down by the army

on the grounds of his height.

But now in 1916,

he was an Australian soldier and heading to France.

Military historian Jeremy Banning has been researching his story.

So his is 53rd Battalion and they are part of the 5th Division.

It's a new division of men that have been created,

and essentially they go into France at the end of June,

but still, he would have been incredibly green.

Well, in his application form to join the Australian army,

they said, "Have you applied before to join the army?"

And he said yes, but he was rejected on account of his height,

cos he was only five foot two and a quarter.

It was because they needed to recruit because of the war,

-restrictions were not as stringent as they had been.

-Absolutely.

They wanted as many men into their forces as possible,

and it's interesting, his height,

because there's a myth now of Australians

-all being six foot and bronzed.

-I know, yeah.

These big farmhands, and here you have

a five-foot-two-and-a-quarter Welshman in their ranks.

Early in July 1916,

William had arrived in France at a place called Fromelles,

less than 50 miles from the Somme.

His Australian battalion had a vital combat role -

to stop German reinforcements getting to the Somme,

where Allied forces were engaged in a major offensive.

Jeremy has uncovered the war diary of William's unit,

which offers a very detailed account

of their first few days on the front line.

So this is William's first opportunity

to be holding the front line in a trench.

This is what he joined up for.

-Right.

-To defend, to hold the line here.

So they're there in the line until the 16th,

so he's had six days in the front line trench.

Remarkably, this photograph shows members of William's 53rd Battalion

on the 19th of July 1916, preparing for battle.

But unfortunately, William and his battalion,

and in fact his whole division, were there at a time

where there was an operation planned to launch an offensive there,

and if you look at the date, we're talking now the middle of July.

-Yeah.

-If you know your history, on the 1st of July 1916,

that's when the British and French forces had attacked on the Somme.

The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest of World War One.

Allied forces were attempting a decisive breakthrough

of the German lines.

At this time, William and his regiment

were just 40 miles away, in Fromelles.

And there was launched a plan here to launch essentially

a diversionary attack against the German lines,

the plan being to occupy the front line

and the support line of the German trenches

-on about a three or four kilometre frontage.

-Right.

And that would tie down the Germans in this area in French Flanders

and stop them sending their troops further south down to France

to reinforce their comrades fighting against the British and French

-down on the Somme.

-Yeah.

And it was planned to be on the 17th of July, so poor old William...

-Oh, right.

-..turns up on the 10th.

William, with minimal practical training

and little time to adjust to his new surroundings,

was about to go into battle

against the well organised German front line.

So on the 19th of July, William's 53rd Battalion,

part of the 5th Australian Division, attacked the German front line.

Jeremy has a map of the battlefield.

So, the 53rd Battalion, with William there,

at six o'clock they got into the German trenches.

-They'd crossed this position, they'd crossed this area...

-Yeah.

-..Of no-man's-land, they'd got into that.

-Yeah.

Now, their comrades on the right in the next brigade

didn't even make it.

But the attack here was such a disaster

for the 5th Australian Division.

They suffered over 5,500 casualties that day.

For Australia, the First World War remains the most costly conflict

in terms of deaths and casualties.

From a population of fewer than five million,

over 400,000 men enlisted,

of whom over 60,000 were killed,

156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

Only three men seen in this photograph of William's regiment

would survive this battle.

It is, I'm afraid to say, Australia's worst military disaster.

-Is it?

-It is.

It's their first time in the line,

their first time in the trenches, their first attack

and they get cut to pieces.

-And William was involved in that?

-He was involved in that.

How amazing.

And very sad actually.

To think that many people were sacrificed in the space of what,

24 hours, is tragic.

Robert knows that the Australian casualties were high

in this particular battle.

But what happened to William?

Did he live or die?

Mike Churchill Jones has the answer.

During that day, on the 19th July 1916,

William Fry was wounded in that action.

We don't know at what point during the day he was wounded,

but it's certainly on the 19th.

William's casualty report shows that he was seriously wounded.

Shot in both legs.

He was later transferred by ambulance train

to Wimereux Hospital in northern France,

which is where he died a week later.

How do you feel after all you've learned?

After all he's been through, after everything he did,

and going to Australia when he was barely 30

and leaving all his family behind

knowing he wouldn't see them again, and he didn't.

But perhaps, in other circumstances, I mean,

perhaps if he'd lived he might have done, I suppose.

But that's very sad. That's very sad.

It's a terribly moving story. It's very moving.

William would never return to Australia or Wales,

but was buried where he fell in France.

He's buried at Wimereux cemetery and he is remembered there

and he does have an individual grave there.

William may have died as an Australian,

but on his war grave

his Welsh hometown of Penclawdd is also remembered.

When he died in Europe his mother and siblings were still here?

-Still here, yeah.

-Alive.

It must have been a terrible shock for them.

I mean, just for the circumstances because it's almost like losing a son twice.

They'd lost him once to Australia when he went,

but there was always the hope that would only be a temporary loss.

And then a year later, two years later it was a permanent loss.

-He never returned.

-No.

-That's very sad.

Mike can now show Robert for the very first time

a picture of William Fry.

It's thought this may have been taken with his comrades in Australia.

I believe that's a picture with his friends

taken before they went to war.

How astonishing is that?

Yeah.

He looks like my grandmother as well actually.

I can see a family resemblance with my grandmother. Most certainly.

-Can you?

-Yeah.

Ah, bless his heart.

Robert has learned a wonderful story of his ancestor, William Fry.

And there are two people he's very keen to share this with.

His mum and dad.

And most particularly his mum, Joan,

whose Fry family he's been researching.

At their Gower home, he can now reveal William's story

to her for the first time.

And a year later in 1915, he joined up.

-He joined the Australian Imperial Army.

-Good lord!

-53rd Battalion.

There was an Australian offensive against the German forces

at Fromelles in France, and he was part of this.

And there were 5,000 Australians...

-In the First World War?

-In the First World War and they went over the top.

-It was the worst day in Australian military history.

-Was it?

-Wow, look at that.

-He has his own grave.

-Good lord.

-It's rather moving, isn't it?

-Isn't that lovely?

It says, "In memory of the beloved son of Mr and Mrs R Fry, Penclawdd.

"Aged 33."

William may not be buried here,

but his parents, Richard and Elizabeth, are.

And their grave has a dedication to their son.

It's a story of great, I think, great fortitude and determination

and I think it shows a great strength of character

in pursuing his goals, his ambitions and his dream, I think.

Unfortunately, tragically, the dream was cut short.

It's nice to see that he's remembered,

that he has got a personalised tombstone in the cemetery

and that he is remembered and will be for eternity.

Robert's journey is nearly at an end.

As a boy who grew up in London,

he knew very little of the depth of his Welsh ancestry.

But now he can look across the village of Penclawdd

and see his family and roots stretching out before him.

Now at the end of his journey,

how does he feel about his visit to Wales?

I've always been proud of the Welsh side of me and my family.

And it's always been something that I've cherished.

And I was delighted when my mum and dad decided to move back down here,

because it gave me a reason to visit more frequently.

I think... I feel very comfortable in this environment

and the environments we've been in, in the last couple of days

and the people we've met.

I haven't felt like an outsider coming back.

I've felt as though part of me has always been here,

which I suppose it has, given the nature of my family.

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