Tanni Grey-Thompson Coming Home

Travelling from her home in Stockton-on-Tees to the South Wales coast

is Paralympic champion, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Known simply as Tanni to everyone,

she's here in Wales to trace her family ancestry

and a hidden story of high drama on the high seas.

In a sporting career of sheer determination and grit

as a Paralympian, Tanni has achieved simply everything,

from 16 Paralympic medals to over 30 world records

and triumphed against the very best in the world

to be acknowledged as the greatest British Paralympian of all time.

And she was supported every inch of the way by her late parents,

her mother Sulwen and her father Peter.

And it's her dad Peter Grey's side of the family tree

that has remained a mystery for Tanni.

My father died three years ago

and we found lots of sort of family photos.

It would be really interesting, yeah, it would be just amazing to know...

just kind of anything, actually,

because Dad was very quiet about stuff.

So it's a voyage into the unknown

as Tanni Grey-Thompson is coming home.

On this journey, Tanni will learn of a wayward ancestor...

So from selling dodgy drink to...doing this.

..discover a moving family story...

And at 74 years old, to do that is amazing.

That's pretty... That is fantastic!

..and learn she wasn't the first in her family

to be honoured at Buckingham Palace.

Oh, my God!

Setting off on her journey,

Tanni grew up in Cardiff along with her sister Sian,

but she went to school in the nearby coastal town of Penarth.

And it's in Penarth that her story begins,

at the Trinity Methodist Church in the centre of town,

where Tanni meets with genealogist Mike Churchill-Jones.

-Hi, Tanni.

-Hello.

-Welcome to your tree reading.

-Thank you.

-I've been researching your family tree

-and this is what I've come up with.

-Oh, wow!

OK. What do you think?

It's really weird seeing so many names...written down.

-Yeah, I can understand.

-And just...

I don't know, I was expecting...kind of great-grandparents maybe,

or a little bit further, not...all this.

Not faced with all this.

It's actually quite emotional when you see it.

And I didn't think I would be,

because I always think I'm not terribly emotional about stuff,

but when you see it all written down...

It's Tanni's father's side of the tree and her family's roots in South Wales

that Mike's been researching.

He's taken the tree all the way back to Griffith Price in 1699,

Tanni's six times great-grandfather.

But Mike starts the story with her great-great-great-grandparents,

Ann Price and her husband.

Philemon Thomas.

-Nice name.

-We like strange names in our family, don't we?

Philemon was born in the Vale of Glamorgan

-and he was a master wheelwright.

-Oh, right, OK.

I've been given an award by the Master Wheelwrights Association, actually, because of my racing chair.

So I'd really like to go back to them and kind of go,

"Actually, there's lots of reasons why I should have had that, not just cos I had a racing chair."

Next, Mike draws Tanni's attention to her four times great-grandfather, William Billington.

The 1861 census shows him simply as a labourer,

but this is not the full story, as she will learn.

Tanni's ancestors later moved from the Vale of Glamorgan to Cardiff,

which is where her grandmother Joyce Harvey lived.

Sadly, Joyce died the year before Tanni was born

and she has always wanted to know more of her story.

Joyce, she died in 1968 in Cardiff, she was born in 1905 in Birkenhead.

She was born to Joyce Elizabeth Hill and John Henry Harvey.

Interesting, because I never knew my grandmother's surname was Harvey.

Finally, Tanni can also see on the tree

that she has ancestors from Cornwall whose surname was Lobb.

The Lobb line goes back to your oldest ancestor there.

-Oh, wow!

-Uh-huh.

1697.

Through her Lobb family,

Tanni will learn of her rich maritime past of generations of sailors

who came from Cornwall to settle on the South Wales coast.

This photograph shows Tanni's great-great-grandfather, Captain William Lobb,

pictured in the 1920s.

William, like his father, would take to the sea,

and it's his adventures that will come to dominate Tanni's journey into her family's past.

Wow!

Now Tanni is heading off for the first part of her story.

She's visiting the seafront in Penarth near Cardiff

on the trail of her great-great-grandfather William

and his life as a sailor.

Just like his ancestors, it was the sea that called to him.

He left the coast of South Wales far behind,

heading for adventure on the other side of the world.

His time at sea has all been recorded in the maritime archive.

And back on dry land at the lifeboat station on Penarth's promenade,

Tanni meets with expert Bryan Richards,

who has found records of William from an early age.

We do know that...William went to sea when he was 13 years of age.

Wow!

I had no idea.

In 1858, William was recorded as being a ship's boy.

There was no formal training,

so as a boy he would have had to learn his trade,

which, on the ship, would have been running messages for the captain,

helping the cook, taking food down to the crew,

learning about sails and the rigging.

The records show that by the age of 17,

William was sailing around the treacherous seas of Cape Horn to Chile

to bring back precious copper ore to Swansea.

Bryan knows the details of these voyages,

because these are William's personal record cards

showing the ships he served on and the time he spent at sea.

It's amazing that you've got...

That the record cards has got everything that he's done, that the record-keeping was so good.

William must have been an exemplary sailor,

because the records show he worked his way up from ship's boy

all the way to master mariner.

And this is the master mariner certificate.

Wow!

And it was issued in...November, 1870.

So Tanni has learned that her great-great-grandfather William

was qualified as a ship's captain in 1870,

but there is great deal more hidden in his story for Tanni to uncover.

BIRDSONG

Next, Tanni is off to St Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff.

She's on the trail of William Billington,

her great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was from Cheshire.

The census of 1861 describes him just as a labourer,

but it appears he also had a more intriguing occupation,

as medical historian Dr Alan Withy has discovered.

Straightaway Alan shows Tanni William's census return for 1871.

"William Billington.

-"Bone...cutter?"

-It's bone setter.

Well, in actual fact, William Billington is known with three different medical titles,

he's known as a bone setter, as a surgeon and as a doctor.

Now, that's really unusual. You don't tend to get people in each category.

A bone setter, for example, is something very specific.

You're normally a bone setter as part of a family lineage,

it goes from father to son, and on.

A surgeon again is something fairly specific.

The general practitioner hasn't really emerged by this period, mid-19th century, yet,

so he does seem to be a bit of an everyman.

William worked as a surgeon

at a time when anaesthetic was in its infancy.

Many of William's patients would likely have been

semi-conscious whilst he set about treating them.

But what sort of training would he have received?

He would have learnt on the job, so to speak,

but how quality that training would be is debatable.

What would his sort of working conditions be like?

Would he just sort of go to people's houses and do stuff?

Yeah. I mean, in this period, and especially in a rural area,

he wouldn't have his own little hospital or operating theatre as such.

People might well come to him. And if he has a good reputation

as a surgeon or as a doctor or as a bone setter,

people may well come from miles around.

It may be no more than performing the operation on the kitchen table.

It's hard to imagine the pain many of William's surgical patients

must have endured as he sought to treat them.

At this time, there were only a few crude ways to try and dull the pain.

Laudanum, chloroform, we have there,

which are available in local apothecary shops.

Also, something like a heavy dose of strong liquor

-is not unknown as a...pain relief.

-SHE LAUGHS

The census shows that even in old age, William was still working.

It's interesting to note that, aged 82, he's still listed as being a bone setter.

That would actually be very unusual,

because the strength that you need in order to perform the act of bone setting,

especially in the bigger limbs, shall we say,

would require help.

So what, did they just sort try to shove the bones back together

and strap them up?

That's right. In a broken arm, that would be fairly simple,

you can manipulate the bone back into place and strap it up with a splint,

but if a thigh bone breaks or becomes dislocated,

then it can take the services of several...several assistants,

and especially aged 82.

We can only imagine the poor patient sitting there as several burly men relocate their leg,

cos the muscles contract and it gets very difficult to do.

So, yeah, he would have had some help, I would imagine, by that age.

-If you don't get it right, that's when you start using things like that.

-Hmm. Exactly.

Oh! Yuck! That's horrible! SHE LAUGHS

Now Tanni is back on the trail of her great-great-grandfather, William Lobb, in Penarth.

She now knows he was a sailor from the 1860s,

but 20 years later, it appears William had left the sea behind

and in 1887 was on dry land running a pretty rowdy pub,

as historian Dr Louise Miskell has been finding out.

It's given as licensed victualler,

-which basically means he's running a pub.

-Yeah. That's the posh title, isn't it?

It is, isn't it?

Interestingly, though, we can pick him up in other records as well

from around the same period.

So I'll show you one from the 1880s.

A newspaper called The Cambrian.

"Landlord of the Terminus Hotel

"was summoned for keeping his house open on Sunday." SHE LAUGHS

"PC Jones, 18,

"said that at 11.30 on the morning in question,

"he visited the defendant's house. In the bar he saw five men

"and four in another small room.

"Mr DR Smith defended, stating that there was no case for the court

"as all the men in the house had sworn

"that they were bona fide travellers.

"They must be especially careful as to whom they supplied with drink.

"He did not think they could convict the defendant under the circumstances

"and the case would be dismissed."

It appears William didn't use the warning to mend his ways.

Just a year later... This is the interesting bit here,

if you just want to read the first few lines of this article.

This is from The Cambrian newspaper again.

And, as you can see, the article begins with the words "The Black List".

"The following is a list of those persons

"who've been convicted during the past years, 1887-8,

"for various offences.

"William Lobb, Terminus Hotel, Rutland Street."

Again, these are people convicted under the licensing laws.

-Erm...

-"Convicted for breaches of the Act."

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Oh!

So...it's interesting, isn't it, that he's the first name on the list.

-Lovely.

-I wonder what that says about him as...a known offender.

-It's not alphabetical, is this? No.

-It's not, no.

So maybe he was the worst offender.

Well, he might have been, yes, unfortunately.

Again, I think what it tells us

is that by this stage, 1888, he's known to the authorities,

not necessarily for the right reasons,

and somebody who they're keeping a close eye on

for these licensing offences.

-It's not good, is it?

-No.

Oh, dear! I have a criminal in the family.

So far, Tanni has learned that her great-great-grandfather William Lobb

was both a master mariner and a publican convicted for selling drink on a Sunday,

which makes the next story she is about to learn all the more extraordinary.

She's back with Mike Churchill-Jones

who's impatient to reveal some new information.

He's traced William to 1918, now in his 70s.

Hi, Tanni. You've been learning today

about your great-great-grandfather, William Stephen Lobb.

He became a master mariner, captained his own ship.

He even worked as a publican...

and you've heard all the intrigues of that.

Now, I've actually found his name in...the London Gazette.

Have a look at that.

It's the frame down here on the left-hand side.

The London Gazette publishes the names

of those recognised in the honours list.

-Oh, so it's recognition...for something.

-Right.

-You'd like to know what it is?

-Yeah. SHE LAUGHS

-There it is.

-Oh, my God!

-Do you want to read it?

-That's amazing!

"The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire."

It's his MBE. So what did he get it for?

So just like Tanni, her great-great-grandfather William Lobb was awarded an MBE.

He was aged 74 at the time,

but just why did he receive this special award?

That's... I wish our family had known about it.

He was honoured in the Birthday Honours List of the King

and that's all we know.

The records have been lost, they've been destroyed, we don't know why he got it.

Tanni would really love to know

just why William was given this great honour in 1918,

but is at least thrilled to know he received it.

That's amazing.

I wish we'd known about it, cos it's...cos it was such a big deal for my family, me getting one,

but to know that there'd been somebody else who'd done it would be...incredible.

William Lobb MBE.

SHE TUTS

It's nice, isn't it?

That's really lovely, actually.

That's amazing to know that there's kind of people who have done that.

I'm kind of lost for words and that doesn't happen very often.

That is absolutely amazing.

Good on him. So, from selling dodgy drink to doing this.

He... He did really well in the end.

-He did, yeah.

-Wow!

That's nice.

The records showing why William was awarded the MBE may be destroyed,

but there is still more to learn of his story.

Next, Tanni is back on the seafront.

She knows that her maternal grandparents and great-grandparents lived here in Penarth.

Today, its waterfront from the marina to the pier

are dedicated to leisure for day trippers and locals alike,

making it hard to believe that this area was once dominated by a busy coal port

owned by the Windsor-Clives

rivals to the Bute family who owned nearby Cardiff Docks.

On Penarth pier, Tanni meets with historian, Nigel Bevan,

to learn more about the town her grandparents called home.

Penarth at that time, it had been developed from the 1850s onwards

by the Windsor-Clive family, the earls of Plymouth.

If you go back to that late-19th-century period,

Penarth Docks thrived for many, many years.

Erm...the Bute family, the Marquises of Bute,

they'd developed Cardiff before Penarth.

Cardiff's first great dock opened in 1839.

Business was great.

I mean, Cardiff Docks grew to be one of the biggest ports in the world,

but it was often in a state of chaos.

-So was there really big rivalry between the two families to see who could be the best?

-Oh, a lot.

They were both extremely rich and they bumped against each other.

So, yes, there was rivalry between them. In 1878 though, the passenger railway

came through to the centre of the new Penarth Town

and the Plymouth estate decided that this half of the town,

on the south side running down to the beach,

this would be developed as a very smart upmarket resort.

You've got these really big houses and, you know, very grand.

-Was the idea that sort of people of wealth would move into Penarth?

-Very much so.

As the resort got going, it became a very desirable place to live.

So some of the richer business people from Cardiff,

they developed big villas above the resort looking over the sea.

Marine Parade, this is where the big houses went in.

And interestingly, these people were able to commute to work in Cardiff Docks

by catching a boat from the beach.

And for the less well off, Penarth was connected to Cardiff by a tunnel

from the entrance to Penarth Docks going under the River Ely to Ferry Road.

It cost you a ha'penny to go through.

This pedestrian tunnel was completed in 1900

and only finally closed in 1963.

At half a mile long and poorly lit,

it was said to be a favourite with Edwardian pickpockets.

Tanni has a story passed down in her family about the tunnel.

One of my grandads...so my mum's father's first job was taking gold sovereigns underneath the tunnel.

And he'd have a bag and I remember him saying that if anyone had ever known what he was doing,

he would have been hit over the head and the money would have been taken. HE LAUGHS

And I don't know where he was taking it from or to,

-but he was paid as a messenger to go through the tunnel.

-To go through that tunnel. Oh, lovely. Lovely.

Shortly, Tanni will learn the last dramatic chapter

in her great-great-grandfather William Lobb's story,

but first, at the start of her journey,

she wanted to know more about her grandmother, Joyce Harvey,

who died the year before Tanni was born.

But what did Tanni's dad tell her about his mother, Joyce?

Mike Churchill-Jones has been researching her story.

My dad was so close to her, I think it upset him to talk about her,

so that's why we never really heard anything about her.

-25 days before she was baptised, this occurred.

-Yeah.

From 1905, around the time Joyce was born,

Mike has also found a death certificate.

-Entry of death?

-Yes.

So whose?

It's actually Joyce Elizabeth, her mother.

Ohh! So she died in childbirth or...?

She lasted 14 days.

OK.

-Wow!

-So 14 days after your grandmother was born,

-she lost her mother.

-Gone.

-At 29 years.

-Hmm.

It's young, isn't it?

That's really young.

I guess back then, childbirth was still...fairly hit and miss, wasn't it?

-It was indeed, yeah.

-And just...

-So tragedy for the family.

-Your grandmother had a sister, so she left two children and a husband.

-Yeah.

And her husband obviously then called your grandmother...

-After...

-After her mother.

That's really sweet, isn't it?

-It's just...

-And you had no idea?

No idea at all. I mean, that was never talked about within the family.

I think Joyce was very close to my dad and my mum,

but...that was never mentioned.

We kind of knew sort of deaths on my mum's side of the family,

but never, never talked about it on my dad's. No, not at all.

-That's quite hard, isn't it?

-Hmm.

You forget how many women died sort of either in childbirth or as a result of childbirth.

So how does Tanni feel about what she's learned?

It's sad to think that my great-grandmother died at the age of 29

and, you know, their family life changed sort of for ever,

but I think maybe that sort of...

gives me a bit more understanding about the way my dad was then brought up.

You know, my dad sort of was very much protected as a child

and wasn't allowed to do a lot of stuff, play outside the house,

you know, was sort of kept at home.

And it's probably that whole fear if something happened to your loved one.

But as a result of my dad being brought up like that,

his decision to kind of bring me up as someone who wanted

to travel the world and explore and do something entirely different.

So sort of slightly weird that out of that sort of tragedy, you know,

my dad gave me a huge amount of freedom that I might not have otherwise had.

So that is quite a sort of bizarre feeling knowing that that's where I've come from.

Now Tanni is about to learn the final chapter of William Lobb's story.

By the outbreak of World War I, William was nearly 70...

..but his maritime experience

meant he was able to join the merchant navy,

captaining a ship in the convoys

bringing vital supplies into Britain.

And historian, Dr Jonathan Hicks,

may just have uncovered the reason for William's MBE.

Well, I've done a little bit of research into

your great-great-grandfather's service during the First World War.

And I can tell you a little bit about how he spent his time,

which might give you a clue as to how he won the MBE.

At the start of the Great War, as you know,

he was appointed as a captain.

And he had his own ship, the SS Silvia.

On the 15th of March...a German submarine spotted William's ship,

surfaced and this happened.

And I'd like you, if you could, to read that for us.

This is an account of the actions taken by William Lobb as captain of his ship in March 1918.

"At 5.30am, ship was attacked by gunfire

"from a submarine on the surface at a range of about 1,000 yards.

"On first shots being fired, the master gave order 'Hard a starboard' to bring guns to bear

"in order to take advantage of light in the eastern horizon.

"He then told pilot to take charge

"and went aft to supervise and direct the gunfire.

"Ship at once returned the fire and fired three rounds hitting submarine once for certain and possibly more.

"Submarine started to dive after second round from ship.

"The master, who is 74 years old, acted very well."

SHE SOBS "Probably saved the ship from being torpedoed...

"by his prompt use of helm and opening fire.

"He had no special recommendations to make."

That's amazing. I...I never thought I'd cry about a family relation that I didn't know anything about,

-but to not panic and to...at 74 years old to do that is amazing.

-Hmm.

That's a pretty...

good reason to be given an MBE actually, isn't it?

That's amazing.

-I can't imagine anyone doing that at 74, can you?

-No.

That is fantastic. Absolutely amazing!

That is just incredible!

That's a photograph...of the German submarine.

Oh.

And it was driven off by the actions that William and his gunners took.

And the ship made it safely back to port.

-And was everyone OK?

-Everyone was OK.

The two shots that hit the ship didn't cause any casualties.

Wow!

-Fair play.

-Hmm.

-So for that he may well have been awarded the MBE.

-Yeah.

But what we do know is that in the same edition of the newspaper,

he's also mentioned there receiving...

The Distinguished Service Cross.

The Distinguished Service Cross.

So besides his MBE...he would also have been awarded

the Distinguished Service Cross.

Only people who had shown exceptional bravery

were rewarded in this way.

These are examples of the medals he won.

Wow!

My family had no clue about this.

He saved the whole crew.

That's pretty amazing. We have no idea where those medals have gone,

-but he would have got those?

-Yes.

That's pretty good.

-Very proud of him.

-There he is.

-Oh, wow!

-There's William.

A grainy photograph it may be, but this is William in his full captain's uniform.

I hope I'm doing cool things when I'm 74.

HE LAUGHS That's just...

My family had no clue about this.

Good for him.

Tanni is nearly at the end of her journey.

But before leaving Penarth,

it's very important to her to make a return visit to the school in this town

that gave Tanni the vital start that ultimately lead to sporting greatness.

And some budding historians are busy preparing for her visit.

But just why was this school so vital in Tanni's story?

St Cyres was really important to me because at the time

it was the only school in South Glamorgan that would take wheelchair users.

And my parents had a big fight to get me here.

I should have been through special education, and my parent's view is

I needed a school that was accessible, I didn't need different education.

And now there's a chance for some of the current pupils

to meet one of the school's most successful former students.

APPLAUSE

Hello.

Hello, everybody. Wow!

SHE GASPS

This is really weird being back here.

I went to school here a really long time ago, so... This used to be a library,

it was all filled with books when I was here, so it's really different.

Tanni can now show the pupils her family tree.

So today, I've been finding out about my great-great-grandfather,

which is... Like, can you imagine your great-great-grandfather?

-Yeah.

-Were your family aware of what your great-great-granddad done?

No, my parents didn't have a clue at all, so my dad didn't know anything about it.

We absolutely didn't know that he'd got an MBE.

My dad would have loved to have known that.

Now coming to the end of her journey,

how does Tanni feel about what she's learned?

The experience was so much more emotional than I was expecting,

cos I only really knew about my grandparents.

There is a bit of a feeling of...it's not quite sadness, but I wish my dad had known.

But, you know, there's so much that I wish he'd known about.

But...I think he would have been incredibly proud

to know that on his side of the family, you know,

that somebody like William Lobb had existed.

And the children of St Cyres can't let Tanni go

without a little surprise of their own.

Oh, wow! That's amazing!

SHE LAUGHS Thank you very much.

That is absolutely beautiful. They're huge!

Thank you very much. That is so sweet. Thank you.

Aw!

"Tanni, thank you for coming home from all the boys and girls at St Cyres."

Thank you very much. Thank you.

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