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 was the assistant 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, seem 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.

Sidney Radmall passed away in 2002.

Emmeline Radmall, nee Coles, passed away in 2004,

so there's no parents that would claim the estate either.

Mark Forrest didn't know Robert's parents, but heard of them often.

Robert...

..would speak about his parents. He had fond memories of his parents.

I think his dad boxed at amateur level

but, yeah, he spoke highly of his parents, very much.

Loved them dearly.

-Is he there?

-Right, OK, fair enough.

Between them, Amy and Ryan have to tackle

both Robert's father's side of the family, Radmall,

and his mother's side, Coles.

Knowing that other companies will be working this case,

they'll have to work fast to trace living heirs

before another firm beats them to it.

-I have one for you, me and Suzanne.

-OK.

-Which side do you fancy?

You've got Coles-McDermott or you've got Radmall-Pratt.

You choose.

Um...I'll take the Coles. I prefer Emmeline.

I'm hopeful that they've all got interesting names.

An interesting or unusual name involved in the research

can often help speed things along. In the Radmall case,

there were some very interesting and unusual names to work with.

The Radmall name itself was quite an unusual one.

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.

Other companies may have already discovered this

and could be on the trail.

Camilla, could we have a text for reps

-to be on standby for London, Hertfordshire?

-OK.

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?

-OK.

So, I'm going to send one of our travelling reps

to see if we can't catch her at home.

And if that fails, hopefully they can find out, from neighbours,

whether she's, perhaps, away on holiday

or where she is or whether she's moved on.

But there's a breakthrough.

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.

While the team work on finding living relatives,

Robert's grandparents' marriage certificate reveals

more about them, listing his grandfather as a coach builder.

In the 1920s and '30s, Charles could have worked at a firm

like the Morgan Motor Company, where cars were custom-built.

Martyn Webb is the company's archivist today.

Charles would have developed great skills in this.

It's not an easy job at all.

You needed great woodworking skills

to create the structural frame of the car,

not only accurate from an aesthetic point of view

but, of course, it had to be structurally sound as well.

Charles would have started as an apprentice

and been trained by skilled craftsmen.

By the mid-1930s, his skills would have been in great demand,

as it was a boom time for the manufacture of cars.

They would have been building bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley

and other prestigious motor manufacturers.

It would have been fairly long hours.

He would have been a reasonably respected craftsman

cos this wasn't easy work at all.

Only the very wealthy could afford to buy a car until the 1930s,

when the costs of motoring came down

and an averagely well-off family could then afford to buy a car.

A simple wooden frame, constructed out of a number of pieces of ash.

These were hand-crafted and then sent into the workshops above

to be panelled in either steel or aluminium or some other method.

Today, Morgan is the only company in the UK

still using traditional methods.

In the late 1940s, the arrival of mass manufacturing

signalled the end of this era and many companies went bankrupt.

Coach maker Charles was good with his hands

and passed his creative genes down to film-maker Robert.

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

born in 1962? He should still be alive.

Back in the office, and 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.

It's Ryan Gregory at Finders in London.

We're a firm of heir hunters.

I'm guessing, by the engaged tone on your mobile,

that someone's been in contact with you about a deceased's estate?

Right.

OK, so, we trace missing beneficiaries to estates.

We're looking for Steven Radmall, who was born in 1962?

With pressure mounting and the company's travelling researchers

already despatched in other areas, company MD, Daniel,

volunteers to go and see Steven himself.

But will he get there before any competitors?

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.

The advantage of George's surname meant that,

unlike Smith or Jones, it could be an easy family name

for the heir hunters to trace and establish heirs.

The first thing we usually do in a case like this

is to contact the neighbours of the deceased to see if they knew

anything about him, regarding his family or his background.

Heather Smith was one of those neighbours.

George used to love going fishing. He'd like a teatime drink.

I miss George cos he was such a good neighbour

and I'd known him for 15 years

and he was the ideal neighbour that you'd want to have.

George lived alone and Heather didn't ever meet any of his family.

When I first moved in, I saw a nephew.

A nephew came once and I never saw him again

but I don't think he had visitors at all, to be honest.

He just, you know, kept himself to himself at home.

Unfortunately, neither Heather nor any of George's other neighbours

could provide the heir hunters with further information.

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.

Close colleague Dave remembers

George was fascinated in mechanics from an early age.

He really enjoyed driving and fixing things,

whereas we'd just break them.

George would constantly say,

"You're driving too fast, you're too high up the gears,"

and things like that, so he took more care

of the vehicles than we did, I think.

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.

The mission of the British forces

in Borneo was to defend Borneo from incursions by Indonesian forces,

coming across the border.

It's worth pointing out that this was an undeclared war

between Indonesia and Malaysia but the main purpose, really,

was to defend this very long border

between the Malaysian portion of Borneo

and the Indonesian portion, called Kalimantan.

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.

Now, the marriage certificate stated that Rose was married beforehand

to a gentleman called Robert Aldridge.

We then had to make sure that the mother of the deceased

didn't have any children from her first marriage to Mr Aldridge,

so we had to set about checking the birth indexes of Scotland

and England to make sure there wasn't any further issue

and we discovered that there was none.

For Mike, the hunt is on to find an heir

and he finds out that George wasn't the only one

with a long and interesting military career.

She's working, clearly, on fitting out the inside of a plane.

Every year, in Britain,

there are thousands of unsolved inheritance cases,

where heirs need to be found. Could YOU be one of them?

Today, we've got details of two estates

on the Treasury solicitor's bona vacantia list

that are yet to be claimed.

The first case is that of Elizabeth Agnew.

She died on 15 April, 2013, in Ashford, Kent, and was 91 years old.

It's believed she may have been known by the surname Dobin.

She was born in France,

three years after the end of World War I, on 28th September, 1921.

The name Agnew is of Norman origin,

but may originate from the French name, Agneau.

Could there still be family links to Elizabeth

in either Normandy or France?

Does the name strike a chord with you?

Do you have any ideas that could hold the key

to unlocking this estate?

Next, the case of Jack Adams,

who was 68 when he died on 26th January, 2003.

He was a bachelor and lived in Leytonstone, East London.

It's believed that Jack might have a brother living in Canada.

Does his name mean anything to you?

Could you be the beneficiary they're looking for?

If you think you might be related to either of these people,

you would need to make a claim on their estate

through the government legal department.

I feel I am very, very lucky

to be a beneficiary of somebody who I didn't know.

Could it be you?

Do you know anything that could help solve

the cases of Elizabeth Agnew or Jack Adams?

If so, you could have thousands of pounds coming your way.

In London, heir hunting firm Fraser and Fraser have taken on the case

of 68-year-old George Hawkesworth, who spent 22 years in the army.

Case manager Mike Pow has been looking into George's family history

for potential heirs and discovered that his mother, Rose Guthrie,

may have provided the inspiration for George's military career.

On the mother of the deceased's second marriage,

we noticed that 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.

Working long hours, but for the first time,

earning a good wage of up to 40 shillings a week,

the war effort would help shift attitudes

to women's role in society forever.

One of the things that war is about

is not just about the men who are fighting

but about the machinery which enables them to fight

and, particularly, in 20th century warfare.

So, the production of armaments, of planes, of tanks,

is absolutely crucial to the war effort,

so you really need to pull in that female workforce -

voluntary, if you can but, if not, compulsory.

Because their work is going to enable you to fight the war.

George's mother was a strong woman

and, as the heir hunters dug deeper into her past,

they found that her wartime conscription

developed into a lifelong military career.

INAUDIBLE

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.

All 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...money.

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 their 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.

To be born illegitimate in the 1900s

was usually frowned upon by the majority of people.

It would have been a bit of a stigma attached to it,

which is possibly why, when she married Herbert Hawkesworth in 1917,

the mother of the deceased, Sarah McKinnon,

made George take on the name Hawkesworth as well.

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.

From the marriage of Herbert Hawkesworth and Sarah McKinnon,

we established that there were at least eight half-blood siblings

to the father of the deceased, George.

We also quickly established that the majority of them

passed away as children. Five died relatively quickly

which, obviously, limited the potential for relatives to be found.

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.

It's quite rewarding to know we've managed to find

the rightful beneficiaries,

who will now benefit from George's estate.

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.

-It 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.

Maurice Ashley, a colleague from 1969, remembers his love of the job.

He made a very good instructor.

I did a course, once, when he was one of the instructors on it,

on a amphibious vehicle, and he was a very confident instructor,

which is probably why he did a lot of instructing,

back here in England.

Er, he was good at his job, yeah, very good at his job.

George's aunt, Mary, and her daughter, Carol,

have the medals from George's career -

a valuable record of the high esteem

with which he was regarded in his regiment.

"Corporal George Hawkesworth, for courage and decisive action

"in halting a stolen Chieftain tank."

So he got a commendation for stopping someone stealing a tank.

Yeah, yeah. Wow.

It's fascinating to see all the different photographs of George,

all his army friends, really nice.

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.

For his friends, George's memory lives on

through the times they spent together.

-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.

In London, the heir hunters have been on the trail

of heirs to the estate of Robert Radmall,

who died suddenly, with no known family.

Case manager Ryan Gregory already discovered one heir

on Robert's father's side of the family

and Managing Director, Daniel Curran, is on his way to meet him.

Daniel is going to go and visit the paternal cousin, Mr Radmall,

and we'll see what happens there.

We'll verify the information that he gave Ryan over the phone as well,

about the rest of the family tree.

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.

One of our travelling reps is on the way to see

whether the potential address I had for the maternal aunt is correct

and, if so, to try and find out

the missing pieces about the uncle, John Coles, as well.

Daniel has arrived outside the home of Steven Radmall,

who lives in West London.

The guy concerned is only one of a quite small family,

so he should know most people in the family

but it sounds like it's a bit disconnected and, with any luck,

he'll give me a bit of time to talk him through the case.

Several firms may have a look at it

and speculatively see if there's any heirs to be found,

so there's an element of competition.

At the end of the day, it's for the heir to decide

whether or not he wants to work with someone and, if he does,

hopefully he'll choose us to work with him.

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.

Often, when the reps are going to see beneficiaries in person,

it can be quite frustrating.

People might not want to open the door to everyone that knocks.

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.

AMY 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.

Now the hunt continues to find the birth certificate of Margaret Coles.

Amy needs to search records from the right period of time

with the right name and the right parents.

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.

We could be dealing with a sole heir, if that's the case.

So, if the heir is still friendly with us,

like he was when I spoke to him, then we should be good.

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.

If this round of research turns out to be correct,

and Margaret has passed away and John has passed away,

both without marrying or having children,

it means that we now have a situation

where the sole paternal heir that we've found to date

will actually be the sole heir to the entire estate.

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?

When you break the news of the death of a relative of someone,

there could be a whole range of reactions.

I've seen everything, from people being devastated by the news

but, equally, you could have a fairly close relative,

in terms of someone's mother or father,

but they don't have any feelings towards it one way or another.

-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.