0:00:02 > 0:00:05Today, the heir hunters are struggling with a case
0:00:05 > 0:00:07which is proving a tough one to crack.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10It looks as though this family's really very small
0:00:10 > 0:00:13and dies out completely.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Deceased on birth certificate.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19A second case has its roots in rock and roll.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23He discovered the '80s pop sensation Katrina And The Waves.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26It's all in a day's work for the heir hunters.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29If I'm in Ely now, it always seems strange I can't ring him up,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31say, "What are you up to? Are you coming for a beer?"
0:00:43 > 0:00:47In the London offices of probate genealogists firm Finders,
0:00:47 > 0:00:48case manager Ryan Gregory
0:00:48 > 0:00:51and the team are starting work on a new case just in.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53I was hoping to ask you a few questions
0:00:53 > 0:00:55and then I can give you some information.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58So this is the estate of Violet Francis.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01The case has been referred to us privately,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04and we're just going through the information that we have
0:01:04 > 0:01:08in the initial contact e-mail from the person who referred it.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13So far, we know that Violet Francis was born on the 10th November 1929
0:01:13 > 0:01:14in London.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16She passed away a spinster.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22Her parents were William Francis and Violet Francis, nee Ware.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Violet Francis lived in Littlehampton, West Sussex.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29She called the seaside town home for around nine years
0:01:29 > 0:01:31after moving there from Staines in Middlesex.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Edna Smith lived on the same street as Violet
0:01:34 > 0:01:36when she was still in Staines.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Violet was very much her own person.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Lived on her own. Never married, as far as I know.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44I never saw her with anybody else.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Never saw her with friends or anything.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49She just kept to herself.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51And we'd meet perhaps on the way to the shops,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53or on the way back from the shops.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56And we both used to feed the horses in the field up the road.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Violet Francis died aged 85
0:02:00 > 0:02:03on the 7th of October 2015
0:02:03 > 0:02:04after suffering a stroke.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09As far as we're aware, the estate comprises of a property which
0:02:09 > 0:02:13may be somewhere between £300,000 and £400,000.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15And then there's going to be some shares
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and some bonds on top of that as well.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19So we're talking a large amount.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23All hands are on deck and Amy's also on the case.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28I'm trying to look into the maternal family tree
0:02:28 > 0:02:30just to see what we're looking at.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32Size wise.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35I found a 1911 census for the Ware family.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41And it says that Violet's mother, Violet,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43was one of just three children.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47There was Violet herself and then a sister,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51SFE, turned out to be Sarah Fanny Elizabeth Ware.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53And a brother, John Henry.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Although the heir hunters have a head start on Violet Francis's case
0:02:57 > 0:03:00with a few clues to get them started,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02they can't rely on it all being fact.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Even though we've got quite a few bits and pieces here,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08really we have to start from the beginning anyway
0:03:08 > 0:03:10and verify all of it before we even get going.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16As Violet's case is unfolding, Ryan makes a tragic discovery
0:03:16 > 0:03:19when he receives her mother's death certificate.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Mother, Violet Francis, formerly Ware, deceased on birth certificate.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26It turned out that Violet's mother,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29she sadly passed away during childbirth.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33So she died around the same time that Violet was born,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35in November 1929.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39That means that we only have a nine-year gap
0:03:39 > 0:03:43to fill in terms of any siblings of Violet.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46As the parents married in 1921, we've done a birth search
0:03:46 > 0:03:51from 1921 to 1929 and haven't found any other issue to that marriage.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55So it seems as though there is no brothers and sisters.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57So we are looking at the maternal and the paternal families.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Confirmation has come in that Violet never married.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06And because she had no siblings,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09the next step is to find out who her grandparents were,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13on both her mother and her father's side of the family.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Ryan hasn't been able to go that far back up Violet's family tree -
0:04:18 > 0:04:20he's still stuck at her parents,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24and has discovered some more details about William Francis.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27I think I've found the deceased's father.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32In 1911, it appears that he was already serving in the Royal Navy.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37He was down in Portsmouth.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39He was a cook's mate in 1911.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47Violet's father, William Francis, was born in 1890.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50He joined the Navy in 1907
0:04:50 > 0:04:52at a crucial time for the beleaguered British Empire.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55However, he wasn't on the front line -
0:04:55 > 0:04:58and his naval career came from humble beginnings.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00Essentially, throughout
0:05:00 > 0:05:01his career in the Navy,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05he was part of the cooking staff on the ships and bases
0:05:05 > 0:05:06he served aboard.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09He would have done various jobs within the ships or the bases'
0:05:09 > 0:05:12galley, and it would have been everything from initial food
0:05:12 > 0:05:18preparation, actually cooking things up, maintaining the big ovens.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23William Francis would have alternated his service
0:05:23 > 0:05:25between land and sea.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27But in the years of conflict,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30during the Great War, he was based on dry land.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34He saw many changes over his 20-year naval career.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37In terms of how his job has evolved...
0:05:37 > 0:05:40As time progressed, it would have got slightly easier
0:05:40 > 0:05:42because of improvements in technologies.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45He even had a chance to serve in one of the Navy's first
0:05:45 > 0:05:49aircraft carriers in the 1920s, HMS Argus.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52So he would have seen the Navy evolving around him
0:05:52 > 0:05:56from this coal-fired, big-gun weapon system
0:05:56 > 0:05:59to one that became much more three-dimensional.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01The records are painting
0:06:01 > 0:06:05a clear picture of Violet Francis's father's past.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11In the office, Ryan is still working on the family tree
0:06:11 > 0:06:13but is struggling to branch out.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18At this time, we don't know who the paternal grandparents were.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23We know the paternal grandmother was called Elizabeth Francis.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27But because she was widowed by 1901,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31we don't know exactly what her husband's full name was.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I'm just going to try and see if I can do a marriage search
0:06:34 > 0:06:36to see if anything pops up.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Then we can hopefully piece it together like that.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44The team has just uncovered the identities of Violet's grandparents
0:06:44 > 0:06:45on her mother's side of the family
0:06:45 > 0:06:48from her mother's birth certificate.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53They were Johan Richard Ware and Sarah Naomi Long.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55Married in 1882,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57they had three children,
0:06:57 > 0:06:58including Violet's mother,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00also called Violet.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Working on the other side of
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Violet's family, Ryan has asked
0:07:04 > 0:07:06researcher Suzanne to try to track
0:07:06 > 0:07:08down siblings of her father, William.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09William Francis...
0:07:11 > 0:07:14He's the youngest paternal uncle.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17- How is Charlie spelt? - It's just Charles in 1911.- OK.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Do you mind seeing if you can find a marriage and a death certificate?
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Yeah.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Amy's next job is to look for any children of Violet's
0:07:24 > 0:07:26maternal aunt and uncle.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30It looks like only her uncle John married and had children.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34There are two possible children which,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38if correct, would mean that we've got two maternal cousins to look at.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41There are both born in 1910,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45so they've probably passed away some time ago.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48On the other side of the desk,
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Ryan's had a breakthrough
0:07:49 > 0:07:53tracking down Violet's father's side of the family.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55I've just managed to find the bit of information on the
0:07:55 > 0:07:571911 census that we were after.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01It shows how many children there was in the paternal family.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Now we know that the paternal grandmother, Elizabeth,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09was widowed by the time of the census.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14But we just found out that she'd had five children,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16four of whom were still living by 1911.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20One of those was the deceased's father.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Researcher Suzanne is having
0:08:23 > 0:08:27no luck finding living children of Violet's uncle Charles.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33Suzanne's got Charles but...we think it probably has died out.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36But as they're about to call it a day,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Ryan has some positive news.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42So I think we may have just found a potential...
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Well, we have found a potential beneficiary on the estate
0:08:45 > 0:08:46of Violet Francis.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50One of the dead ends in Suzanne's search for Violet's paternal
0:08:50 > 0:08:53cousins has suddenly come to life.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55I'm looking at the stem of Charles Francis.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58He had two children in Staines.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01One of them I found has passed away fairly recently.
0:09:01 > 0:09:052009. And he had three children himself.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08So it looks like I've managed to find contact
0:09:08 > 0:09:09details for two of them.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Now the team has reaped the rewards of their research
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and finally located heirs to Violet's estate, it's over to
0:09:16 > 0:09:18travelling researcher Phil,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21who's in Staines, to tie up the loose ends.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24We are seeing Andrew and David Francis.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26They are both in their 50s.
0:09:26 > 0:09:31I've got the paperwork to sign both up as beneficiaries,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34or potential beneficiaries, to this lady's estate.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39Violet Francis was born on the 10th November 1929.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42You two are the paternal cousins...
0:09:42 > 0:09:45once removed to Violet.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48- Right.- Your grandfather, Charles... - Yep.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53- ..was the brother to Violet's father.- Who was William.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58- OK.- Do you remember uncle William? - Yeah, no, that's exactly right.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02- Yeah? Mum, do you remember an uncle William?- No.- No?
0:10:02 > 0:10:05We had no idea we had a great cousin,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08a second cousin called Violet at all.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10The first information we had was
0:10:10 > 0:10:14when we had a call from the office on Monday or Tuesday this week.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16- Thank you very much. Thanks for your time.- Lovely to meet you.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18Lovely to meet you.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21A further five heirs were discovered
0:10:21 > 0:10:24on Violet's father's side of the family.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28And a few days later, another heir has surfaced on Violet's
0:10:28 > 0:10:30mother's side of the family,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33bringing the total number of heirs to nine.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36In a case that's certainly taken a long time to bear fruit,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39there's one final twist.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43We were actually notified that the deceased had left a will.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46The first thing we want to do is notify the family members that we've
0:10:46 > 0:10:50contacted that they may no longer be entitled to inherit from the estate.
0:10:50 > 0:10:51So that's what we did.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Almost as soon as we told everyone that they may not be entitled
0:10:54 > 0:10:56to inherit from the estate,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00we got a call from the executors of the deceased's will.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04They were able to confirm to us that actually two of the residuary
0:11:04 > 0:11:07heirs in the deceased's will had predeceased Violet.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09That meant again that the heirs
0:11:09 > 0:11:11that we'd initially contacted would be
0:11:11 > 0:11:14entitled to inherit from Violet's estate after all.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28- Newmarket.- Oh. - What do you think?- I like that.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32John Gammon, from Ely, in Cambridgeshire.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35He made a name for himself in the music industry in the 1980s
0:11:35 > 0:11:39as a hugely successful journalist and band manager,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42in a career spanning four decades.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45John's friends have fond memories of the early days.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48I met John when I was a teenager.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50About 17.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53John worked, at that time, at the local hotel.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57And we met at a coffee-bar-cum... the sort of thing
0:11:57 > 0:12:01we had in those days, jukeboxes, pinball machines.
0:12:01 > 0:12:02That's how I first met John.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And we hit it off...from the word go, really.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12In August 2015, John sadly passed away after battling
0:12:12 > 0:12:17a serious illness. He was 63 years old.
0:12:17 > 0:12:18John became a very close friend
0:12:18 > 0:12:20over the last 20 years.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23I got to know him first of all when I was a corporate manager
0:12:23 > 0:12:25at Lloyds Bank. John was a client.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27He had his loves in his life,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30he had his Tottenham Hotspur, that he loved.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32John was passionate about his music
0:12:32 > 0:12:35and about writing and reading, but most of all he loved his music.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Our friendship just developed from that,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40because he was unlike most customers that you have as a bank manager.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46Although John was much-loved, because he died leaving no will,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49his case was taken up by London-based heir-hunting firm
0:12:49 > 0:12:50Fraser & Fraser.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The way we source our work has changed
0:12:56 > 0:12:57dramatically over the years.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00And now we rely a lot more on the internet.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05What caught my eye was the fact that John, during his lifetime,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10appeared to have been a successful music journalist.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14And had also been a manager of several successful bands.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Pull that open and have a look at these different ones.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22He discovered the '80s pop sensation Katrina And The Waves
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and ran a promotions company called Ham Acts during the same period.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Katrina And The Waves. They were...
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Eurovision Song Contest winners, weren't they?
0:13:31 > 0:13:33I don't know. It's before my time, I think.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35- Yeah. 1997. - THEY LAUGH
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Before your time. Yeah, it was before mine as well(!)
0:13:37 > 0:13:39There's lots of tributes about Mr Gammon.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42"I shall miss his blunt sense of humour
0:13:42 > 0:13:45"and his general love/hatred of the live industry."
0:13:45 > 0:13:49"Just the worst news. John was an absolute one-off.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52"And the wittiest and most entertaining of company."
0:13:55 > 0:13:57John's entry into the world of journalism
0:13:57 > 0:14:00set him off on his path to following his dream.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02John had a number of career highlights.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05The first of which was he was extremely proud the first time
0:14:05 > 0:14:09he got his name on a record sleeve.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11John was very content in his life.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Yeah, he was doing what he loved doing,
0:14:14 > 0:14:15which was working from home, writing.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18He had his circle of friends that he would meet up quite regularly,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20chat and put the world to rights with.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27And the world that John was living and working in at that time
0:14:27 > 0:14:28was a thrilling one.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31I think the '80s was THE most exciting time for pop music
0:14:31 > 0:14:33and pop culture, particularly in Britain.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36You had to this incredibly rapid turnover of scenes and styles
0:14:36 > 0:14:40and tribes. You had, you know, the 2-Tone Rude Boy movement,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43you had Goths and New Romantics.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48John Gammon's love of music came at an exciting time.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51He started off working as a manager for live bands.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54John Gammon was a live agent at a time
0:14:54 > 0:14:56when a live agent was a pretty important thing to be.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58The received wisdom with the music industry is
0:14:58 > 0:15:03that 20 or 30 years ago, you went on tour to sell your record.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Whereas now, you put a record out to sell your tour.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08MUSIC: Walking On Sunshine by Katrina And The Waves
0:15:08 > 0:15:10And as John was pounding the streets
0:15:10 > 0:15:12looking for bands that caught his eye,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15one rock group with its American front woman stood out to him.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18John would have discovered Katrina And The Waves in Cambridge,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22playing a local gig, because they were a local band.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26A band like Katrina And The Waves would have probably just been
0:15:26 > 0:15:30doing the thankless thing of slogging around the local
0:15:30 > 0:15:33live circuit, just hoping that someone like John might happen
0:15:33 > 0:15:37to be in the room with his notebook and might happen to see them.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41And John's hunch about Katrina And The Waves paid off.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44I think probably the highlight of John's early career would have been
0:15:44 > 0:15:47seeing Katrina And The Waves having a huge international hit record.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50And that happened with Walking On Sunshine.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Which...it got to the top ten in the States and the UK.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56And this is a time when record sales were at quite a peak,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59so a number one record would be selling millions.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02But even a record at number eight or nine would still sell
0:16:02 > 0:16:05hundreds of thousands. That would have been so satisfying,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08to see a band that you've really invested so much of your
0:16:08 > 0:16:11heart and soul into finally making it big.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13# Don't it feel good? #
0:16:13 > 0:16:16In the '90s, Katrina And The Waves went on to win
0:16:16 > 0:16:20the Eurovision Song Contest - the last British act to do so.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23In the same decade, John concentrated on his writing
0:16:23 > 0:16:26but didn't let go of the music.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29So, in 1995, John became an investigative journalist
0:16:29 > 0:16:33working in the music industry's trade publications.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37And his job, I suppose, would have been to explain the music industry
0:16:37 > 0:16:40back to people working in it, to let them know what was going on.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44To give them all the kind of inside scoops on certainly what was
0:16:44 > 0:16:47happening in the live music side of things.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50John Gammon didn't only make a successful career
0:16:50 > 0:16:54from his love of music, he also gained respect from his peers.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57John's reputation is one of an absolute gentleman.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01And that's actually quite difficult to maintain in an industry
0:17:01 > 0:17:05with so much backstabbing, gossip and resentment going on.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10So the fact that he managed to last for so many years in the industry
0:17:10 > 0:17:14without making enemies and maintaining a lot of friendships
0:17:14 > 0:17:15speaks well of him.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Hoping to be able to pass on an estate of some value to John's
0:17:20 > 0:17:21next of kin, David's team members
0:17:21 > 0:17:25began looking at the birth and death records.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Do we know where mamma and pappa were born?
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Coupled with the information we received from speaking with
0:17:32 > 0:17:36some of John's neighbours and friends, we were quickly able
0:17:36 > 0:17:40to establish that John remained a bachelor throughout his lifetime.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42And he was an only child.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46The nearest next of kin to John would be aunts and uncles
0:17:46 > 0:17:49or cousins on both his mother and father's family.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55John's birth certificate would be the starting point
0:17:55 > 0:17:58to unlocking the clues to his family tree.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03First, it confirmed his parents were Lizzie Eden and John William Gammon.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07They married on March 9th, 1940.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10John William Gammon, he was 26 at the time of marriage.
0:18:10 > 0:18:11He was a bachelor.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15His occupation was that he was a builder's labourer.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19Lizzie Eden, she was 24 at the time of marriage. She was a spinster.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21At this time as well,
0:18:21 > 0:18:24it was quite uncommon for women to have professions.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27So that is unfortunately left empty.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32John's parents' death certificates revealed some sad news.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Both parents, we discovered, died in the 1960s.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40This is the death of John William Gammon.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44He was 46 years old when he died. He was quite young.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48And that was on the 23rd February 1960.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Just a year later, he was to lose his mother.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Born in 1951 himself,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00this would have meant John Gammon was just a boy when he was orphaned.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05It must be very tough for a child to go through. Especially at that age.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Research began with John's mother Lizzie's side of the family.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14We were able to establish that Lizzie was born in 1915...
0:19:14 > 0:19:15in Newmarket.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19And it showed that her mother's maiden name was Sennitt.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Very unusual name.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24So it didn't take very long for us to find
0:19:24 > 0:19:28the marriage of Edward Eden to a Lydia Sennitt.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Literally a year before Lizzie was born.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35From there, we then looked to see if Lizzie had other siblings,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38i.e. aunts and uncles to the deceased.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Now they knew they had found John's grandparents on his mother's side,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47his family tree was beginning to take shape.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51Extensive research of the birth records of both England and Wales
0:19:51 > 0:19:55uncovered just one aunt on John's mother's side.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Lizzie appeared to have just one sibling called Kate,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03who was born in 1917, also in Newmarket.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07There appears to be lots of marriages for Kate Eden.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11All spread all over the country. But there is one in Cambridge.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14We've got to work on the theory that the family...
0:20:14 > 0:20:15She's born in Newmarket,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18it's going to be the Cambridge marriage that is the right one.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23So we are fairly confident that Kate married Leonard.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26OK, so from this record that I can see right here,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28apparently he was a military man.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34Kate Eden and Frederick Thomas William Leonard were wed in 1939,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37just months before the outbreak of World War II.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44The war raged for six years,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47in which time over 60 million lives were lost.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53In 1945, towards the end of the conflict, as the British Army
0:20:53 > 0:20:57and other Allied Forces moved into Germany, John's uncle
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Frederick Leonard was thought to be part of the liberating forces
0:21:00 > 0:21:05of one of the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07The liberation of Bergen-Belsen happens right towards
0:21:07 > 0:21:09the end of the war.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11So we are looking at April 15th, 1945.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Frederick Leonard arrived at Bergen-Belsen as a member
0:21:15 > 0:21:17of the military police.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20But the camp wasn't always a death camp.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25In 1935, it was actually a military training camp for the Wehrmacht,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27the German Army.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Then World War II starts. It's a prisoner of war camp.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32And then, towards the end of the war, 1944,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34it becomes what's called recovery camp.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36So again, it changes its nature.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41And the idea of a recovery camp is, inmates in other camps that
0:21:41 > 0:21:47were too ill or sick to work would be sent to Bergen-Belsen to recover.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51But in actual fact, the title is ironic because very few of them did.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58The camp had some notable inmates suffering within its confines,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01including Anne Frank and her sister Margot.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04What British troops were faced with when they arrived
0:22:04 > 0:22:05they would never forget.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09There were 60,000 people at Belsen when the British got there.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13The camp was actually only designed for 10,000, so you can imagine
0:22:13 > 0:22:16just the overcrowding that must have been there.
0:22:16 > 0:22:17It's quite horrific.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Conditions in the camp were awful.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22There were two things in particular the British had to contend with.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25One was there was a massive outbreak of typhus in the camp.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28So what the British did is they placed
0:22:28 > 0:22:29a quarantine around the camp.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31The other appalling loss
0:22:31 > 0:22:33from death was just simply through starvation,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35because these people arrived in the camp
0:22:35 > 0:22:37and had just been left with no provisions.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41Without actually being there, I can't imagine how horrible it was.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43But it must've been absolutely horrific.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46And I know many of the accounts of the British soldiers
0:22:46 > 0:22:47when they first arrived,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52they just struggled to come to terms with what was actually going on.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54And there was this dawning realisation of just what
0:22:54 > 0:22:56they had discovered.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00While the liberation of Bergen-Belsen was unfolding, John's
0:23:00 > 0:23:04uncle Frederick would have played an important role in proceedings.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06The military police,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10their key function is being a police for the military.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13And their job was purely with the Army, rather than with civilians.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16So the kinds of jobs that he may have been
0:23:16 > 0:23:19doing around the camp would be guarding, patrolling,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22checking in and out of the camp, that kind of thing.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26After the camp was emptied of its abused inmates,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29the British concentrated on holding the perpetrators
0:23:29 > 0:23:31accountable for their actions.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33I believe about 80 guards
0:23:33 > 0:23:36and the commandant of the camp, Josef Kramer,
0:23:36 > 0:23:38were arrested by the British
0:23:38 > 0:23:43and the British then held a trial called the Bergen-Belsen trial
0:23:43 > 0:23:45after the war.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50Out of the 80 guards that there were, 20 actually died from typhus.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55So the number was actually shrinking and a small number fled and escaped.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Kramer and the guards were convicted for their crimes.
0:23:59 > 0:24:0311, including Kramer, were sentenced to death.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11The team had John's uncle Frederick's war records
0:24:11 > 0:24:13but now they needed to discover
0:24:13 > 0:24:17if he and Kate had any children during the war years or soon after.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23There's two births in Cambridge that look really spot-on
0:24:23 > 0:24:26for the time that the parents get married.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29We've got Carl Leonard and Anthony R Leonard.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36John's first cousins, if living, would be his heirs.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42Tony Leonard was discovered alive and well and in his 70s.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44PIANO PLAYS
0:24:44 > 0:24:46One day, out of the blue,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50I had a call to tell me that John was deceased.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52And I was quite shocked.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Well, it did come out of the blue,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57because John, you see, didn't tell us
0:24:57 > 0:24:58that he was even ill.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Or contact any of the family.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03And none of us knew that he was ill.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07You see, that was the kind of relationship it was.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Tony and John may have drifted apart in adulthood,
0:25:11 > 0:25:16but in their early years, their lives were very much entwined.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19John's parents passed away when he was about nine years old.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23His father died, then two years later,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25his mother died.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28And he came to live with our family.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30We were turfed out of our rooms,
0:25:30 > 0:25:35we had two single beds in the same room, and he came in the bedroom.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39But he didn't fit in too badly and we got on reasonably well.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43You know, as a family. But we were both interested in literature.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45And we discussed this quite a lot.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49We had quite a good lot of discussions on that sort of thing.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52After his troubled childhood,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55the road wasn't always smooth for John.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59As John got into his teens, he became rebellious
0:25:59 > 0:26:05and there was a personality clash between him and my mother.
0:26:05 > 0:26:11And this resulted in John eventually leaving.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14And taking lodgings...
0:26:14 > 0:26:18And he went to Cambridge and found some lodgings there.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20As he spread his wings,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24John's passion for music and writing began to make him a name
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and earn him a living, but he and his cousins lost touch after that.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Tony had no news from John
0:26:30 > 0:26:33until he received the call from the heir hunters.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38In the heir hunters' office,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42the team had also located an heir on his father's side of the family.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Bringing the total number of heirs to three.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49The heir hunters were successful in quickly finding
0:26:49 > 0:26:51John Gammon's beneficiaries.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56However, they didn't go on to represent them in this case.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59What we did establish from our point of view was that John
0:26:59 > 0:27:02appeared to live a real rock and roll lifestyle
0:27:02 > 0:27:04and spent all his money.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07So the estate was fairly modest.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11So, from our point of view, it was nice that we were able to locate
0:27:11 > 0:27:15family that weren't already known so they could attend the funeral.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20And John's friends made sure he had a fitting send-off.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27I found out that he would have a council funeral.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Um...
0:27:30 > 0:27:33I felt that he was too much of a good friend to actually let him
0:27:33 > 0:27:36go that way. The band I was in at the time said,
0:27:36 > 0:27:41"Well, we'll do a benefit gig for John at a local pub here in Ely."
0:27:41 > 0:27:43We had a fantastic turnout.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45It was just incredible.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47The place was just packed.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Fantastic. You know, almost tearful, you might say.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53To just think that people would do that for a friend.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55I mean, it's hard to put into words, really.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58It restores your faith in humanity.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01- To John.- The boy Gammon.- It was a pleasure knowing you.- Cheers, John.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03- John.- To John.
0:28:03 > 0:28:04If I'm in Ely now, it all seems strange
0:28:04 > 0:28:07I can't ring him up and say, "What are you up to?
0:28:07 > 0:28:08"Are you coming for a beer?"
0:28:08 > 0:28:11But, yeah, he'll always be remembered very fondly.