Radmall/Hawkesworth Heir Hunters

Across the country heir hunters are searching

-for long-lost families.

-Hello.

It's Wednesday in London

and just one case has landed on the heir-hunters' desk.

It's going to be hugely competitive,

so it's really important that we get going quickly.

They might be about to change someone's life.

This is probably one of the weirdest days I've ever had in my life.

I think, if I told someone about it,

they'd probably take me back to the loony asylum.

In Shropshire, emotions run high

after an unexpected knock at the door.

I don't want his money. I want him.

And that leads to a touching reunion.

Here's to George. Ta-ra, George.

-Cheers.

-You'll be missed by all of us.

-All the best, George.

-Cheers, George.

In London, case manager Amy Moyes has the Bona Vacantia list

issued by the Treasury.

Every day, probate genealogists, like those at Finders,

search for families of those who have died without any next of kin.

We've just had this morning's ads through.

There's one ad today on the list

and it turns out to be a property owner.

It's the estate of the late Robert Sidney Radmall.

I'm just working with Ryan on this.

As soon as the lists are available, it's a race against the clock

for any heir-hunting firm to beat their rivals to secure any heirs.

With only one new case today, the pressure is on.

It's going to be hugely competitive,

so it's really important that we get going quickly,

so we're just trying, at the moment, to clear off any close kin

and then look as quickly as we can

into the maternal and paternal families.

Mark Forrest was a close friend and work colleague of Robert Radmall,

who died, unexpectedly, aged 59.

I knew Robert for just under four years.

Robert and I became very good friends.

We used to speak quite often, two or three times a week.

Robert lived in Hemel Hempstead, and Mark got to know him

when he worked on an independent film he was shooting.

He came on board. He was assistant director.

Um, he assisted with the lighting,

he would assist the director of photography,

he would help with the location. We had a different level of skill sets.

There were some guys that were established and others not so,

and Robert would be the lynchpin between the two.

Robert's promising career was tragically cut short

when, on the 18 August 2015, aged 59, he suddenly passed away.

It was a complete shock to me, complete shock to all of us,

all of his close friends. When I first heard, I thought,

"No, it's a mistake, obviously it's a mistake."

I spoke to him a few days before and we were due to meet soon,

within the next few days.

Yeah, complete shock. He had so much to give.

In the offices of the heir-hunters,

case manager Ryan Gregory has already established

key information about Robert.

We were able to use the address and see that Robert lived on his own

since around 1992, when he moved into the property.

We could back that up with a marriage search

and the initial indications suggest that Robert was a bachelor.

So, we're not looking at a spouse.

It's hard for us to find any children,

given that he evidently didn't marry,

so we're ruling out issue and a spouse for now.

Looking at the electoral rolls for Robert Radmall,

we can see he's probably been living in the family home

and he's probably inherited that.

When we look, historically, through the electoral rolls,

he's actually living with, it seems to be, his mother and father,

Emmeline and Sidney Radmall.

This means that Robert's estate is likely to contain

the family home in Hertfordshire,

making it a valuable asset for any potential heirs.

Robert's parents were Sidney Alfred G Radmall and Emmeline Annie Coles.

They married in 1940 and had Robert, an only child, in 1956.

So, what we found out is that the paternal grandparents were called

Sidney Bertram George Radmall and Ada Elizabeth Radmall, nee Pratt.

They married on 18th April 1915. They were living in Islington.

This was during the First World War.

Sidney was a soldier at the time of marriage.

Um, so, beyond that, they had Gladys in the same year and Sidney,

who's the deceased's father, they had a few later in 1918.

I'm looking at the maternal family, which is surname Coles,

so already, that's a much more common surname

than Radmall to be dealing with. From the records,

it looks as though the deceased's mother was one of three siblings,

her brother and sister being called John and Margaret.

So, again, they're not the greatest names to be working with.

I was really hopeful that, as the mother was called Emmeline Annie,

that her siblings would have equally interesting names, but they don't.

The deceased's father was one of three as well.

We found Gladys A Marion Radmall, born in 1915.

She married Thomas H State

but she didn't have any children with him.

I found out that the deceased's paternal uncle,

Ronald John H Radmall, born in 1932,

so relatively recently in the scheme of things, he passed away in 2000.

He was married in 1962,

so I just need to find out whether he had any children.

Ryan discovers that Robert's aunt Gladys passed away in 1977.

Without Robert's parents alive,

his uncle Ronald's children will be the only heirs

on Robert's father's side of the family.

The search is quickly narrowing down to only a few heirs.

Amy is now looking at Robert's mother's side of the family.

Her maiden name was Coles.

Uncle John Coles - looks as though he's passed away in the '80s,

but with a name like John Coles, I can't really tell if he's married

or had children until, hopefully, his death certificate gives me

some more info. So, I'm waiting on that.

I then moved over to maternal aunt, Margaret.

Now, there's a really strong possibility, I think,

that she's alive and has moved to the Sussex area.

She may now be known as Peggy, rather than Margaret,

which isn't uncommon, especially for her generation.

She was born in the '30s. I tried a phone number for her.

She's not answering. It's ringing out, without a machine,

so I can't leave a message.

Amy, could I get you to make some calls for me to help?

I think she might be a beneficiary but she's not answering.

Could you call a few neighbours and just see

-if she is home or not?

-No problem.

Amy's team manage to track down a neighbour.

Yes, the gentleman next door said that she's in a mobility scooter.

-Oh, OK.

-Someone should be in.

-So she's just not answering the phone.

She's just not answering the phone. But he doesn't know

if she has any children or not that we could contact.

I don't think she does.

But he said to keep trying the phone number,

but he was in bed, cos he's on night shifts,

so I woke him up but he was kind enough to let us know.

-That's nice of him. OK.

-Yeah.

-Good. Thank you. Good news.

Do you mind just seeing if you can find a Steven, with a V, R Radmall,

born in 1962?

Ryan has found that Robert's uncle Ronald

did have a son, Steven, who lives in London.

OK, he might be the only paternal heir. Shall I give him a call?

-Yes, please.

-OK.

-The only one?

-Looks like it, yeah.

-OK.

-There's only a mobile.

-OK.

He might be engaged.

Ryan eventually gets through

to what must be a very surprised Steven Radmall.

Hello, is that Steven Radmall? Hello, there.

With pressure mounting and the company's travelling researchers

already despatched in other areas, company MD Daniel

volunteers to go and see Steven himself.

Case manager Amy is still trying to establish information

about Robert's mother's side of the family,

his Aunt Margaret and Uncle John, to see what heirs exist there.

If there are none, Steven Radmall could be the only heir

with a claim to Robert's estate,

and Daniel is on his way to meet him.

DOOR ENTRY BEEPS

It's a frustrating wait,

when other heir-hunting firms will be close on Daniel's tail.

No answer at the moment, so I'm going to ring the office

and see if they've got any updates or information.

Meanwhile, Amy is on the phone to travelling rep Stuart...

-Amy speaking.

-..who is at the home of Margaret Coles,

which Amy is hoping is Robert Radmall's aunt.

Oh, no! OK, OK. I'll go back to the drawing board, then.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, I thought that was finished. I'll go and see who I can find.

Speak to you later. Bye.

Unfortunately, she's not the Margaret J Coles I'm looking for.

Her parents were different to the ones that we're looking for.

She also didn't have a brother John or a sister Emmeline.

OK, it's going to be tricky without her birth, I think.

Ryan and Amy are hoping to find a Margaret Coles

without a middle name.

-How about this one? Plain Margaret Coles.

-Oh, yeah. Camden, OK.

Got taken into a care home. Died in the hospital, from a care home.

-That could be her, couldn't it?

-Yeah.

Shall I give Daniel a call?

Yeah, see what he's actually doing and let him know

that he may well be the sole heir now, if he answers.

This could be an interesting meeting,

given that the estate has been valued

at a quarter of a million pounds.

Daniel's been invited into Steven's flat, but other people are arriving.

Are they other heir-hunting firms?

-You're Steven Radmall, that's correct?

-Yeah.

Can you just confirm your parents' names for me?

Nora Radmall and Ronald Radmall.

So, the beneficiaries will be

any surviving members of the Coles family

and any surviving members of the Radmall family.

Now, you're an only child, I understand. Is that correct?

-Well, I...

-HE COUGHS

Excuse me. I have a brother,

but he's from my mother's first marriage so...

-So, a half-brother on your mother's side.

-Yeah.

So he wouldn't be entitled. He's not on the Radmall bloodline.

So, there is a house.

There's a property involved in Hemel Hempstead.

-Have you ever been to Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire?

-I have.

So it could be that you now have a share in this property

and it could be, from the research we've done,

you might even be the only heir to the estate,

so it could be quite a decent windfall.

This is probably one of the weirdest days I've ever had in my life

and I think, if I told someone about it,

they'd probably take me back to the loony asylum.

It's a very interesting day.

Steven hasn't seen his father for 20 years

and, as he didn't play a large part in his life, he's keen to know

if the heir-hunters can tell him anything more about him.

I grew up with my mum and my brother, yeah, so that was just it.

My dad might still be alive. I don't know.

No, your dad passed away in 2000, in the year 2000, in Barnet.

-He did?

-He did, yeah.

We can get a copy of his certificate and send you that, if you'd like it.

-We can get copies of...

-What did he die of, do you know?

We can get a copy of the certificate and send it on to you.

-Can you do that for me? I'd like to see that.

-Absolutely.

We'll get a copy ordered from Barnet and send that on to you.

He died in 2000? I didn't know that.

I try not to pre-empt or guess how the person may react

and just deal with it in a sensitive but professional manner.

Steven then begins to tell Daniel about his daughter.

She's got this thing called craniosynostosis,

which is quite a rare disease. Not being a medical sort of guy,

but for the first two years of your life,

your brain and your skull grows together and there's a gap

and one side wasn't growing so, eventually,

the side that wasn't growing was going to die.

Basically, they got her into hospital very, very quickly

and did the operation they had to do to save her life.

They basically took her skull out and made a new skull.

Steven is so passionate about the hospital's good work,

he then makes a staggering admission.

I'll sign anything to say I don't want any money.

I don't want to gain anything out of this.

Apart from Great Ormond Street seeing the benefits because...

-..22, 23 years, I've seen...

-What they did for your daughter.

..what they've done for my daughter

and they do it every day for so many young children, it's...

I don't want to start crying but it's really important.

-Yeah, definitely.

-You know.

It's been an emotional discussion for Steven,

so Daniel leaves him to contemplate all he has found out.

Do you a nice family tree and, fingers crossed, God willing,

there'll be an inheritance for you at the end of the day.

-But it's lovely to meet you.

-Very nice.

-Good to see you, sir.

-Very nice to meet you.

-Best of luck.

-Been an experience.

-Yeah.

Back in the office

and Amy is having success ruling out any heirs on Robert's mother's side.

Although it's not conclusive today,

it's looking more and more likely that this is the correct death

for Margaret Coles, that she's a spinster without children.

Amy's suspicions were confirmed.

Margaret had no children and neither did John Coles, her brother.

Steven Radmall is about to receive a very interesting update.

I really hope he gets the money. It would be really lovely for him

and he wants to do some good with it, so that's even better to hear.

And for those who knew Robert,

his memory leaves another lasting legacy.

I'll miss him, yeah, of course. I miss him every day.

Across the country, our next case is in Shropshire,

where the search is on for unknown heirs

of 68-year-old George Hawkesworth.

He had a close circle of friends and neighbours

in his home town of Telford.

George had a hell of a personality. He either got on with you

or he didn't.

If George thought you were a fool, he'd soon let you know.

Luckily, I used to get on very well with him.

Yeah, we had some good times, me and George.

On 13th January 2015,

ex-Army man George passed away, after battling a serious illness.

None of his friends knew of any family or will,

so the search was taken up

by London-based heir-hunting firm Fraser and Fraser.

The unusual bit about this case was the name.

I've never come across Hawkesworth

and usually that's a good sign, when you haven't seen a name before,

cos it probably means it's not particularly common.

George's death certificate revealed that he was born in Scotland,

so Mike began to look for any relatives north of the border.

The first thing that we needed to do was to establish

whether or not George was married or had any children

and, after a couple of searches, it looked like he was never married

in England or Scotland or had any children.

OK, cool. I will. Bye.

George's family was the Army.

He was a career soldier and rose to the rank of staff sergeant.

He completed tours in Northern Ireland, Germany and Borneo

and made lifelong friends throughout his 22-year service.

I first met George in Northern Ireland. I was posted there

and George and I were in a room together.

We spent all our time in the Queen's Dragoon Guards there

and it was a great place to be, especially for young boys,

cos there was lots of beer and lots of girls,

so we really enjoyed ourselves.

George joined the Army when he was 18 and spent the next 22 years

in the illustrious 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards,

retiring when he was 40.

In 1965, the regiment was posted to Borneo,

the largest island in Asia,

close to Singapore and famous for its dense rainforests.

George and I, all of us young lads, loved it

because we were in such an alien environment,

at such a young age - first time I and George had travelled outside

the United Kingdom - and to go halfway round the world,

nearly on the equator, weather conditions that we'd never heard of.

I know it rains a lot in Northern Ireland but not as much as Borneo.

UK troops were sent to Borneo to defend it from Indonesia,

after a new Federation of Malaysia was set up,

which was partly under control by the British.

One of the patrols I did with George was 16 days away from the camp.

That means we had to carry all our food. And we had to, um...

Well, we took everything with us

and because we couldn't smoke, because we couldn't clean our teeth,

we couldn't wash, and we had to be quiet,

we didn't speak to each other, except late at night.

It was all done by sign language and clicks.

Dave remembers he and George befriending the locals

and developing a soft spot for some of the animals.

When George and I were on patrol,

we came across a orang-utan female that had been shot,

and clinging to her breast,

was a small baby orang-utan which we tried to rescue.

We realised that we couldn't feed it properly,

so we radioed for baby formula milk, baby bottles and teats

and we were able, then, to feed this baby orang-utan

and carry it back to civilisation

and hand it over to the authorities.

Cheers.

At the heir-hunters' office, for case manager Mike Pow,

the unusual surname of Hawkesworth

made finding George's parents relatively easy,

through birth and death records.

Mike established that George also didn't have any brothers or sisters.

The parents of the deceased, we learnt,

were a Rose Docherty and a George English Hawkesworth.

The mother of the deceased was an aircraft fitter in Paisley,

which was in 1945.

In the Second World War,

Rose Guthrie worked making parts to kit out the interior of planes.

Living in Paisley, Scotland, which had a strong textile industry,

she transferred her skills from fabric-making

to industrial factory work.

One of the new, innovative things that came in

in the Second World War was conscription for women.

Women between the ages of 20 and 40 who hadn't got children under 14,

were called up to work either in factories, like Rose did,

in the locality, if they were married,

or maybe they would go into the forces.

As part of conscription, women had to choose

whether to enter the armed forces or work in farming or industry.

By December 1943, one in three factory workers was female.

They were building planes, tanks, guns

and making ammunition needed for the war.

She's looking at light industrial work,

in what was probably a very big factory.

It would have been a small part of the job.

What they did was to use very specialised bits of labour

so, instead of learning and going through a lengthy apprenticeship,

you would learn just one tiny bit of the task.

Unfortunately, that made it particularly tedious

cos it was very repetitive.

But it would have been a very important job

and numerous women, like her,

by being moved into this different part of industry,

not in what you would call garment trades or luxury production,

but into really important war work,

contributed enormously to the war effort.

After the war, Rose worked as a civil servant for the MOD

until she retired.

For the heir-hunters

and their search for potential heirs to George's estate,

it was Rose's side of the family

that case worker Mike Pow delved into next.

The grandmother of the deceased, Rose Ann Docherty,

married John Guthrie in 1915.

George's parents were Rose Docherty and George Hawkesworth.

Rose's mother, Rose Ann Docherty, married John Guthrie.

They had an incredible 12 children over a 21-year period.

Interestingly, John's name is not actually

on Rose's birth certificate,

making her brothers and sisters half-blood siblings by law.

This meant that if full-blood aunts and uncles could be established,

her siblings would not be entitled.

So we knew that there were 11 aunts and uncles of the deceased

who were issue from the marriage of Rose Docherty and John Guthrie.

We had a quick look to see if any of them died when they were young

and only one died, so we knew there were going to be

at least ten aunts and uncles who possibly survived and had children,

or were still alive and would be beneficiaries.

-I spoke to her.

-Right.

-She phoned in.

One of those was Mary McNally, Rose's youngest sister by 21 years.

The heir-hunters traced her

and gave her the news about her nephew George.

At first I was shocked.

I said, "No, I don't think so. He's younger than me, you know."

Mary was close to her sister Rose, but because of the wide age gap,

as George's aunty, she was only six years older than him.

I remember George well, you know.

I was in Scotland at the time he was born.

I remember him coming home from the hospital with his mum

and I took him out.

At that time, he was only a little tiny thing, you know,

so my mum put him here, she put a blanket round me

and I took him outside

and I was walking round the streets with him in this little shawl.

It was so funny.

Mary remembers George as a typical boisterous young boy.

When he was a kid, he was a funny wee thing at times.

He was always, maybe, hiding.

He'd be hiding and saying, "Where am I?", things like that.

And he'd jump out at you, frighten the life out of you.

He was a wee rascal.

Mary and her daughter Carol didn't know George as an adult.

She lost touch with him

when he moved away from Scotland with his mother.

I did see him quite a lot when we went on holiday

and, I mean, that was it.

And then, the last time I seen him was at his mum's funeral.

And then we lost contact, which was a shame.

Mary is one of 16 heirs to George's estate.

Whatever we're getting, I think it should...

It would be nice for it to go to something to do with the Army,

instead of...I mean...

I don't want his money. I want him.

But...

I don't know.

Sad, sad, sad.

For case manager Mike Pow,

having searched George's mother's family history for potential heirs,

he now needed to complete the whole family picture.

We'll keep our fingers crossed

that there's not too many stems on that side.

The next stage was trying to work out the paternal side of the family,

so the deceased's father, George English Hawkesworth,

to see if he had any brothers and sisters

who may have had children, in turn, who would be beneficiaries.

Do you want to try him first?

Mike struggled to locate the birth certificate of George's father,

but after an exhaustive search through records,

Mike eventually found one, but it posed more problems than it solved.

Once we had the name of the father, George English Hawkesworth,

we thought it would be a relatively easy name to research,

as the combination is not particularly common.

However, we immediately hit a bit of a stumbling block

when it appeared that George was born illegitimately.

He wasn't born with the surname Hawkesworth,

he was born as George English McKinnon,

and the birth certificate states he was born illegitimately

to Sarah McKinnon, who would have been his mother.

With both George's parents unusually being born illegitimately,

all relatives are equally entitled.

Now they would have to change tack

and search for George Senior's original birth name of McKinnon.

This could mean a longer and more difficult search.

Yes, perfect. Thank you. Take care now. Bye-bye. Bye.

Eventually, they did manage to piece this complicated jigsaw together.

George's grandmother, Sarah McKinnon,

married Herbert Hawkesworth on New Year's Eve in 1917,

in Paisley, Scotland.

George English McKinnon was just four years old

when his name was changed.

The marriage produced further children,

meaning the possibility of more aunts and uncles for George Junior.

Mike's research finds that on George's father's side,

only one of George's aunts and uncles is still alive

and one cousin.

In total we've located around 18 beneficiaries.

We worked out that there were 16 on the maternal side of the family

and only two on the paternal side of the family.

Now the case is closed,

George's effects have been sent to his aunt, Mary,

who is one of his closest living relatives.

Look at the size of him! What is he like?

This must have been one of the official...

He shouldn't have been in that photo, look, he's so tiny.

..official dinners or something.

-He's funny, isn't he?

-Ah, that's nice.

-That is a nice one.

-That is lovely, actually.

Many of the photos and records Mary received

show the 15 years George spent as a tank instructor.

Since George's relatives have all been found,

his friends are getting together to remember him.

George got a commendation.

I believe he was guard commander and a recruit stole a tank

and the guy didn't open the doors of the hangar.

He just drove straight through the hangar doors.

George jumped in the Land Rover with the duty driver

and hightailed it over the tank park.

But George climbed from the Land Rover onto the moving tank -

no mean feat for HIS physique - pressed the switch,

cut the engine and he dragged him out.

I think he spent the night in jail.

That's quite an honour, a general officer's commendation.

First I've heard of it. I didn't know anything about it.

Pretty brave man to do that, I think.

-Here's to George. Ta-ra, George.

-Cheers.

-You'll be missed by all of us.

-All the best, George.

-Cheers George.

-Cheers.

-Gone but not forgotten.

-Yeah, definitely not forgotten.