Twigg/Cullum Heir Hunters

Heir hunters spend their lives tracking down the families of people who died without leaving a will.

They hand over thousands of pounds to long lost relatives

who had no idea they were in line for a windfall.

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's program, Fraser's get a tip-off about an unclaimed estate

which leaves them searching high and low for the family's heirlooms

and anything else they can find.

This is a savings book and our gentleman has £83,000.

And we reveal the mysterious case of Baron Von Eudeni,

including his hidden identity and amazing talents.

Something very unusual happened to this young man

that transformed him to something rather unique.

Plus, how you may be entitled to inherit some of the unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?

Fraser and Fraser is one of the oldest firms of heir hunters.

It's run by Andrew, Charles and Neil Fraser.

George R Galloway, who's got the marriages?

Their team has been reuniting people with unexpected windfalls for over 30 years.

Since they began they've assisted 50,000 heirs

who have inherited a whopping sum of over £100 million.

Most of Fraser's cases come from the Treasury's weekly published list of unclaimed estates.

By the time the names are advertised the Treasury has already checked

to make sure there is no will or beneficiaries.

This is good for the heir hunters because if they can find heirs

then they are almost certain of commission.

However, Neil and the team are embarking on another type of case,

the speculative case,

were they work following a tip-off from a member of the public or an acquaintance of the deceased.

Today, Neil's tip-off is about an empty house in Southampton.

It looks like the gentleman concerned, who has passed away,

was never married, didn't leave a will,

hasn't got any brothers or sisters but certainly owns his own property,

and if the enquiry we've just picked up is right

and that he didn't leave a will and doesn't have any known relatives,

then it's gonna go to the Treasury Solicitor.

We've just been given it maybe a month or two before the Treasury,

so it's great news for us. We'll get on to this now.

We'll get on to it straight away and, who knows,

within the next day or two we may have found our first beneficiary.

Bachelor Alan Twigg passed away at home in December 2008 aged 68.

A retired insurance investigator, he fell ill later in life

and eventually died of a respiratory illness.

Someone who knew Alan during his life was family friend John Fawcett.

Well, Alan was a very nice chap, he was a very pleasant chap.

He was cheerful, he was positive.

But we would always sort of meet up, you know, for a...

He'd come over to me or I'd go over to him and we'd spend an evening

having a drink and a chat or something like that.

He was a slightly eccentric chap.

His main interest in life was saving money.

Although he had a fair bit of money he used to shop at Netto's,

which is, you know, sort of the cheapest of the cheap,

and that really was his abiding passion.

But he was a nice chap.

I don't want to give a picture of him

as being a sort of miserable old miser, he certainly wasn't that.

I mean, apart from saving money,

Alan's other interests were bridge and tennis,

which he played until quite recently

when he became a bit too ill to play, his legs,

I think he had sort of heart problems and his legs had swollen up.

Alan will be missed.

I mean, he was thought of as a bit of a character

and he was a bit of a character.

Despite Fraser's being the only company investigating the case,

someone else could easily discover the empty property

and tip off a rival firm.

So, Neil wastes no time in getting case manager Fran Brett

to start to investigate.

A guy down in Southampton, surname Twigg, T-W-I-G-G.

Last address is Ethelbert Avenue, Southampton.

When a referral case hasn't been dealt with by the authorities as yet,

we are taking it on somebody's say so that there isn't a will.

Obviously, we are taking a bit of a gamble,

but that's what we do anyway, so we will see what we come up with.

Armed with some unconfirmed details about Alan Twigg,

the team need to start making their own enquiries

to make sure the facts do check out.

First step is to get travelling heir hunter Bob Barrett

down to the deceased's address to start investigating.

General enquiries are often a shortcut to breaking a case

and just a snippet of personal information

can cut through hours of painstaking office research.

I don't think we know too much about Mr Twigg at the moment,

other than he died in December, that his house has been empty ever since.

So, I think we are really starting from scratch with this one.

Alan owned his house, worth an estimated £200,000.

Without any solid leads to work with,

Bob's first task is to literally knock on the deceased's door.

DOORBELL BUZZES

You never actually know what you're gonna find.

It could well be that there's squatters in the house

or relatives living there,

or other neighbours that will be peering through their curtains

and they will come out and tell you something.

So, I always start with the deceased house

and now I'll have to knock on a few other doors

cos there was no answer there.

Hello, sorry to bother you, my name is Bob Barrett from a firm...

Whilst Bob attempts to gather some leads,

the office is looking back over the family's records.

Because Alan never married or had children,

Alan's birth certificate is key.

His dad was Henry Twigg and his mum is Lillian Holloway.

Any entitled heirs are going to come from any brothers or sisters they may have had.

To help shortcut the hunt for them, the team are looking at the census,

which lists all family members at a given point in time.

We've already found 1911 census

showing the maternal grandparents of the deceased.

Sadly, from our point of view,

Lillian is their only child at this time,

so we'll have to see whether she had any brothers or sisters

that were younger than her who would be aunts and uncles.

What the census has confirmed is that Lillian's parents

were Mr and Mrs Holloway and in 1911 she was their only child.

Now the team need to check their marriage certificate

and any subsequent birth records

to see whether Lillian had any younger brothers and sisters.

Hello, Mr Williams?

Back in Southampton, and Bob has made some headway

on his side of the investigation.

-Thanks very much.

-Just close the door.

So, you knew Mr Alan Twigg, then?

-That's right, yeah. I knew him for about 30 years.

-Oh, right.

-Or the Twig as he was known.

-The Twig!

Can I just ask, how old was Mr Twigg, roughly, to your...

Well, I understand he was 68 when he died.

And he was a white man?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-No accent?

-No.

-Sometimes... Because if someone has got a Scottish accent

we start looking in different places

-for their birth certificates and things.

-No, no.

He had a slight hesitancy when he was discussing anything,

but he lived with his old mother until about 15 years ago,

if my memory serves me correct.

-She died then, did she?

-Yeah.

-He was never married?

-I don't think so, no.

-Never spoke of children.

-No, no.

-No.

Did he ever talk about relatives?

Well, not to me. Not to me.

One of the neighbours said that he understood that he did have a relative,

but no-one had ever seen any relatives come to meet him or anything like that.

-So, a bit of a loner, then?

-Oh, most definitely a loner.

I understand that, somewhere along the line,

he bought the house next door.

So he owned the house he lived in?

Yes, and they also bought the one next door and moved into it,

and then I assume his father died so he moved back in with his mother.

-What did he do the other one?

-Well, he sold it on.

-Oh, right.

Thanks ever so much. Nice to see you.

-Bye bye now.

-Bye, then.

Bob's pieced together that Alan's estate may be worth much more

than the price of his £200,000 house,

worth reporting back to the office.

What can you tell me about the deceased, then?

Very careful with his money, apparently,

which is good news for us, I guess.

-Which is good news for us.

-Exactly. But he was...

-No sign of any accents, so it would seem he was probably a local man.

-OK.

And that's about it, really.

With the case clearly valuable,

the office have moved their research forward, too.

The property itself, I think, is going to be worth in the region of £250,000.

I have also been told there may be another 100 or £200,000 in bank accounts, as well.

And it's not just the value that they have a much clearer picture of.

They've now found out more about Alan's maternal family.

We have done the birth search after the 1911 census.

From the 1911 census, although they were only married for four years,

it said she only had one child.

That one child is the mother of the deceased

and I haven't identified any other children.

So, initial impressions indicate that the maternal side is not going to have any aunts or uncles

and, therefore, any living descendants.

So, it looks as though Lillian was an only child.

There are no heirs on the maternal side of Alan's family tree.

It means that Fraser's need to turn their attention to Alan's father and his family for possible heirs.

If Alan's father is an only child, too,

there will be no legal heirs to Alan's estate

and all the money will go to the Treasury,

a disaster for the team.

Research director Gareth Langford is trying to establish

out of all the Henry George Twiggs which one is Alan's father.

So, he does a search of the birth records.

We've done the whole search now.

I've only got one Henry G Twigg, it's the Sheppey birth.

So, we've only got one birth, we're gonna follow with that one.

Henry George's birth is registered on the Isle of Sheppey,

which is a long way from Southampton.

So, to be sure, Gareth cross checks the details

by looking up Henry Twigg on the 1911 census.

Right, I have found the 1911 census of Henry George Twigg.

The good news is that the father of Henry was in the Royal Navy,

so that might explain why he's gone from Sheppey to Southampton.

So, we have got Henry Twigg the father and then Mary the mother.

It looks like they have been married for about six years

and so far they have had two kids, Henry George and Eleanor.

The mother's only 33, so there's plenty of scope for more kids.

It's a breakthrough moment for the team.

The discovery of Eleanor means that the case has life again.

If Eleanor had any children they would be entitled heirs.

And it seems that Eleanor wasn't Henry's only sibling.

Researcher Simon has made another discovery.

Right, he's Robert Frederick,

seventh of February 1914, dies December 2003...

-Peterborough?

-Peterborough.

There is one more child after the 1911 census,

there is a Robert F Twigg born in 1914 in Medway.

We are just trying to see if we can get an address for him now.

But further research reveals how quickly the team's luck can turn.

Eleanor died a spinster, and Robert died in 2003,

although he was married, so the trail doesn't end there.

From his old address we think we've got his wife,

not an entitled relative cos she's not a blood relative,

but fingers crossed Robert had some children.

All we need is one child and that child still to be alive,

cos this is really our last hope.

If Robert doesn't have any children,

then this estate, which could be up to £500,000,

is going straight towards the Government.

Still to come, the team get a break on the case

which leads partner Andrew Fraser

right through the door of the deceased's home.

The glittering prize of a fat commission is almost theirs,

unless Alan Twigg did have a benefactor in mind.

The worst thing we could find is a will.

A will turning up means difficulties for everyone involved.

Interesting names, valuable estates and intriguing family stories

are the regular fare for heir hunters

as they work to unravel the mysteries behind cases

where people have died without leaving a will.

Probate genealogists Hooper's have seen it all before.

They are the oldest heir hunting firm in the UK.

They've been established for over 80 years.

Mike Tringham is the chairman

and has over 35 years personal experience behind him.

But even for seasoned heir hunters like Hooper's,

finding a baron on your list of intestate estates

was always going to be interesting.

It conjured up all sorts of possibilities.

Something very unusual happened to this young man

at the time that transformed him from just the ordinary man in the street

to something rather unique.

Baron Carl Franz Eduard Von Eudeni

died aged 67 in 1994 at St Christopher's Hospice in London

with no family and little clue to his origins.

However, he left behind a property and estate worth about £200,000.

It was a very unusual name.

From the outset we believed the deceased

was of foreign extraction, obviously because of the name Von Eudeni.

Investigating foreign nationals adds an extra layer to the research

as many of their records are stored abroad,

and in Austria the records can be particularly scant.

We like a challenge.

We never admit defeat over any case that we encounter,

so we thought we would take it on.

With the name Von Eudeni,

Mike thought he possibly could be looking at Austrian nobility,

but whether noble or not,

Carl certainly left behind an impressive past.

Items retrieved when he died included an invitation to the State Opening of Parliament in 1974

and a thank you letter for his dedicated years of service to the Lord Chancellor's Office,

the department responsible for the administration of justice in the UK.

From the few documents that did come into our possession relating to his life as a civil servant,

I guess he was a very intelligent man

and no doubt he came into contact with very important people

both in society and in the civil service

and probably in Parliament, as well.

Despite being confronted by these impressive heirlooms,

a researcher's hunch told Mike to be wary of accepting these first impressions at face value.

I felt a little uneasy about the name when I first saw it

because it struck me as being almost a made up name, possibly.

Certainly a name that we hadn't come across before...

um, and one that...may pose us problems.

Whether you are starting with a prince or a pauper,

the principles of heir hunting are just the same.

Researchers start with the death certificate and work backwards,

but Mike found the team stumbling at the first hurdle.

The name didn't actually exist, certainly not in English records,

and so we needed to dig a bit deeper to come up with an answer.

The most obvious thing to do is to send someone to interview neighbours and friends,

if they had any, and we were able to find a bit of information which turned out to be crucial.

Assistant manager Jonathan Wright was sent to the deceased's home to make enquiries.

What he found indicated that Carl had not always been known as the Baron

in his apparently colourful youth.

We came across a number of photographs of the deceased

looking as if they dated way back, I'd say 1950s.

It seemed to be at some sort of holiday camp and, again,

through the papers I found he was at one time referred to as Carl Dean,

-which is a bit of one of those sort of '50s matinee idol sounding names, in the way.

-Certainly, yes.

If he was an entertainer, that could have been his equivalent of a stage name.

The photos of the deceased showed Carl Von Eudeni

aged in his mid to late 20s

working under a stage name of Carl Dean.

In fact, he was both a musician and stage performer

and worked the summer seasons in Paignton, Devon.

In post war 1950s Britain,

the population threw off the shackles of austerity and rationing

and for one week a year flocked to the seaside

with their bucket and spades

for a fun holiday on a budget.

In this climate, places such as Blackpool, Weston super Mare

and Paignton flourished,

as did a generation of variety performers

who entertained the crowds.

Local historian Peggy Parnell remembers the time well.

Factories were beginning to close down to let their firms have a week's holiday.

Consequently, they would pack on the trains and come down to the south coast.

There was always an atmosphere when the trains came in.

Oh, they were thrilled to bits!

They would arrive at the Paignton station, huge families

and they would walk with their cases

to the little guest houses down off Torbay Road.

There was quite an atmosphere.

I can remember leaning out of a summer's evening and thinking,

"yes, the season is underway,

"I can hear the noise rising up from the town."

Carl was part of this scene,

working as a musician and compere in the camps.

He would be relied upon to introduce acts and marshal the audiences,

bringing the whole show together.

It was very important,

without a compere the audience would just sit there like a lot of sheep

waiting for something to happen!

No, a compere was a very important person.

He got everybody warmed up, got them singing, got them talking to themselves,

reacted to the audience and really got the atmosphere going.

Although Carl's specific career path is somewhat unknown,

he was clearly a success on and off stage,

rubbing shoulders with some of the big stars of the day,

like big band leader Billy Cotton Senior

and comic Norman Wisdom.

But his life would have been as much hard work as glamour.

It would have been pretty well on the go all the time.

I can't imagine that he could have come out of his suitcase very often

if he's travelling up and down the country

going to all these different towns,

so he would have had quite a hard task, yeah.

Whilst Baron Von Eudeni had a brush with showbiz

in his theatrical career as Carl Dean,

back in Hooper's office they had uncovered even more clues

that would blow the case right open and lead to his eventual heirs.

We've struck lucky in that we discovered a variety of documents,

including a birth certificate,

some correspondence relating to a change of name and other papers.

One document proved vital

as it confirmed that Carl had not been born under the name Von Eudeni.

He had officially changed his name by deed poll.

But rather than being born under his stage name, Carl Dean,

he actually had a third entirely different identity.

Far from being aristocratic,

Carl actually started life in much more humble surroundings,

as a Charles Edward Cullum.

We found a letter to the Department of Health and Social Security

confirming his change of name by deed poll to CE Von Eudeni in 1956,

so that was really confirmation.

That's excellent, yes.

So, having gone from thinking he was an Austrian baron,

we actually find he's the son of a street entertainer,

or street musician rather, from Shoreditch.

With a genuine birth name to work from, Hooper's quickly traced Charles Cullum's origins.

He was born in 1926 in Shoreditch in the impoverished East End of London.

Despite dying as an apparently solitary man,

he in fact grew up with four brothers

and had a family background as far removed from an Austrian count

as it was possible to be.

When we discover a little piece of information which unlocks the pathway

to our research, it is a Eureka moment.

There is a fist in the air and a little inward cheer

and it renews our enthusiasm.

Mike contacted the brothers and their families and this is what really cracked open the case.

Despite his multiple identities,

Charles' real story only emerged once Hooper's had spoken to his relatives.

In his 20s, whilst in the Army, Charles had contracted meningitis.

The doctors predicted that he would not recover

and would be severely mentally and physically handicapped

for the rest of his life.

However, what really happened turned out to be much more remarkable.

Steve Cullum is Charles's nephew and he remembers the day

when Charles came out of hospital and surprised the whole family.

Uncle Charlie was sent to Roehampton Hospital.

He stayed there for quite a while.

He come out of there quite brilliant.

His parents were quite musical.

When he went home, he said to his mum,

"OK, mum, what do you wanna play on the piano?"

And she just laughed saying, "Charlie, you can't play a thing."

And there he was,

he sat down and played God Save The King on the piano,

first and only time that he's ever done it.

And since then his musical prowess just gathered momentum.

I think the whole family were just totally astonished.

Just to think that he contracted meningitis,

all of a sudden he's come out a brilliant musician,

can pick up any instrument and play, just like his dad.

Charles's illness had resulted in some extraordinary after effects.

He gained some amazing qualities as a result of a condition known today as Acquired Savant Syndrome.

In recent years, scientists have been puzzling over the exact causes of this bizarre phenomenon

and taken time to catalogue the variety of effects

it can have on sufferers.

Acquired Savant Syndrome is a relatively recent area of research interest,

although we have known about them, I think, for well over a century.

There is a suggestion that there is damage to the area around here,

which is the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe.

What seems to underlie something about savant syndrome

is an ability to remember detail,

to remember things in a more literal kind of way.

So, there is a fundamental gain in terms of memory ability

and this is then applied perhaps in photographic memory,

lightning calculations and musical ability.

In the case of Charles Cullum,

I think being able to listen to a tune and then just play it,

and almost play any instrument,

is actually seen to be one of the kind of characteristics

of what they call musical savants.

Gaining a prodigious musical ability in his early 20s

clearly helped Charles when he performed as Carl Dean.

Memorising and playing songs would have been of great benefit to him on the road.

But Acquired Savant Syndrome also had other effects on Charles' personality

which might help to explain his later alter ego, Baron Von Eudeni.

Disorders in this area here, particularly the acquired disorders,

can lead to these kinds of prodigious skills developing,

but also problems with speech

and it's quite possible that he changed his identity

because his speech had been altered, as well.

So, not only have you got some kind of greater functioning of the right hemisphere,

but because of the damage on this area

his speech was affected in some kind of way.

And, also, if it was kind of more in the frontal area,

his personality may go through changes

and perhaps putting on a kind of European sort of accent

might just help hide that or help the person adjust

to something they can't do anything more about.

No-one can be sure of Charles' precise reasoning for becoming Baron Von Eudeni,

but his nephew Steve remembers the effect that Charles' dramatic change in personality had on the family.

Uncle Charlie was an enigma.

I think it was round about 1957, 1958,

so I have been told by my parents,

that Uncle Charlie came down for a late evening meal.

I was quite young at the time.

Mum cooked the meal, everybody was having a good old chinwag and chat

and, all of a sudden, Uncle Charlie just upped,

disappeared out the front door and just disappeared.

Very rare that he would keep in contact with anybody,

especially after his meningitis, once he's changed.

I think his aloofness got the better of him.

Although Charles didn't stay in touch often,

the family did become aware of his later exploits

and his important job working in the Lord Chancellor's Office.

We were told that he was quite a clever guy anyway.

He could answer any questions you would throw at him.

Naturally enough my dad was quite proud of him,

as were the rest of the family.

He has gone from rags to riches.

I wish we could all do that!

These riches did, of course, filter back.

Thanks to Hooper's careful investigation,

Baron Von Eudeni's £200,000 estate

was finally distributed to nine heirs from the Cullum family of his birth.

For every case that's solved, there are still thousands that stubbornly remain a mystery.

Currently over 3,000 names drawn from across the country are on the Treasury's unsolved case list.

With estates valued at anything from 5,000 to millions of pounds,

the rightful heirs are out there somewhere.

Today we have got two cases heir hunters have so far failed to solve.

Could you be the key?

Could you be in line for a payout?

Thomas Joseph Clark died on the 13th of November 2004 in Birmingham.

Did you know him or any of his relatives?

Hasib Ramic passed away in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in August 2006.

Could you provide the missing key that will unlock the mystery of his estate?

Unclaimed estates often end up being inherited by distant family who did not really know the deceased,

but sometimes the estates have no legal heirs at all

and Neil from heir hunting company Fraser and Fraser is worried

that the case of Alan Twigg might be just one of those estates.

Only-child Alan died a bachelor in Southampton in December 2008

leaving behind a property and savings potentially worth £500,000.

Fraser's have been tracing his family

and their last avenue of enquiry

is Alan's uncle, Robert, who died in 2003.

If Robert doesn't have any children then this estate,

which could be up to £500,000,

is going straight towards the Government.

Robert died five years ago, but his wife Jean is still alive.

As a non blood relative she is not entitled to the estate,

but if Robert and Jean had any children

then they will be the heirs that the team have been looking for.

They have tracked Jean down and Fran is about to make contact.

Oh, good afternoon, Mrs Twigg?

We are looking into an estate matter

and we believe that Robert, had he been alive,

would have been entitled perhaps to a share in the estate in question.

Fran is keen to talk about possible children,

but Jean first fills her in

on Alan's father's interesting final years.

He died in Durban,

in the Merchant Navy?

It looks like the parents were divorced

and actually the father possibly emigrated to South Africa

and died in Durban.

If they were divorced we have got to be careful because, obviously,

we need to make sure that the father's not had any more children.

If Henry had other children

they would be Alan's half brothers and sisters

and they would inherit the estate

ahead of the rest of the Twigg family.

But whilst Neil and the team look for possible half-blood children,

Fran has discovered the other information that they have all been waiting for,

whether Alan's uncle, Robert, had any children.

Has Robert got children?

Yes. Thank you so much, Mrs Twigg. Bye bye.

Very lucky.

She is the second wife of Robert.

She has no children with him,

but he does have a son and a daughter from his first marriage

and she has given me their contact details, so there we are!

It just goes to prove it ain't over till the fat lady sings.

There are heirs on the case. The money will not go to the Treasury.

Now all Neil and the team need to do is finish the research.

Any half blood children will be closer kin,

so will inherit before Robert's children.

Neil's hoping Alan's dad's merchant navy records may provide a clue.

He looks like he worked on the Queen Elizabeth,

which is a very good boat for him to be working on.

And I think he's got the best part of 20 years service on the Queen Elizabeth, as well,

so it's quite possible that he would have been very, very well known on that boat.

Henry spent much of his time at sea away from his family,

including completing hundreds of transatlantic crossings

on the Queen Elizabeth.

She was the largest passenger liner of her day

with a capacity of over 2,200 passengers, as well as 1,000 crew.

In the 1940s and '50s she dominated the Southampton to New York route

before jet airliners superseded her.

Henry worked as a first class waiter in one of the many restaurants,

but, spending weeks away from home,

temptation must have been ever present.

A girl in every port.

Yeah, well, that's the fear.

We have to be very careful that we are dealing with a sailor

and if he had a girl in each port,

does he also have a child in each port,

and if he has children in each port, the cousins which we have found now,

which are, we believe, the beneficiaries,

there is a possibility of closer kin,

of him having an illegitimate child somewhere.

Possible, but very, very hard for someone to prove

unless he has signed the birth certificate,

which most sailors never did.

Before the advent of DNA testing,

single mothers and their children would find it very hard

to prove who an absent father was.

If the father of a child did not sign the birth certificate,

then to all intents and purposes the child was legally fatherless.

Putting ifs and buts to one side,

Fran has a phone call to make with the relatives that they do know exist,

but can she secure the signatures that the team need to make some commission?

Oh, good afternoon, Mrs Power?

I'm sorry to trouble you, I have been given your...

-Diana confirms that she and her brother are Alan's first cousins

through his uncle Robert, but she still needs to be convinced

to let Fraser's oversee Alan's estate for them.

Right, thank you very much indeed for your time.

Bye-bye.

At the moment it doesn't look too promising.

She is very sceptical and doesn't want a visit,

would like correspondence so that she can pass it straight to her solicitor.

It's very disappointing for the team.

After all the hard work, the chances of them getting their commission is looking slim.

After a few weeks of further correspondence,

retired schoolteacher Diana Power and her brother subsequently signed up with Fraser's

to inherit cousin Alan's estate.

There proved to be no other children from Alan's father, Henry.

I first of all got this phone message

and I was a bit suspicious about this, so I said I would go along with it,

but I did a little bit of research on Fraser and Fraser

just to make sure that it wasn't a scam and, of course, it wasn't.

And, of course, then when I did hear it was Alan,

I just felt quite shattered, really,

the fact that a close cousin of mine had died in those sort of conditions

without me even knowing about it,

and then being told by a complete stranger that my cousin had died.

Whilst Diana had lost touch with Alan some time ago,

they had known each other very well earlier in life.

We often used to go and visit Alan and his mother.

Our family used to go and visit them.

My aunt was quite a sort of dominant person

and so therefore everything was centred around her.

When I think of it, the way we were brought up was completely opposite, in a way.

I had a wonderful childhood in Singapore.

We were so free to do what we liked.

There was no danger whatsoever.

We just used to go out into the jungles

and our parents were never afraid that anything would happen to us.

Where Alan was, you know, there was always this strict regime in the house.

Whenever we used to go and stay at his house,

my Aunty Lil would be very firm with him.

If ever anything was on the floor, Alan would always have to come and pick it up after

and if we ever had a meal and I dropped a few crumbs, Alan was expected to get the dustpan

and brush it up, and that's how meticulous she was over cleanliness.

I think that when he used to come to us it was a matter of, sort of,

you know, "Great, I can get out now and do what I want!"

Whereas he could not really do that in his own home.

Diana and Alan remained close throughout their early adulthood

and continued their friendship over the years.

The last time that I would say that he came to our house

was probably about 15 years ago

and even though I had written a couple of letters to him, we didn't receive any replies

and I suppose we just sort of thought he just wanted to discontinue the relationship

and it's a pity, because it was just left like that, unfortunately.

Alan's home has yet to be cleared and is still in the state that it was left when he died.

Now that Fraser's have found heirs, Diana has instructed them to act on the family's behalf.

Partner Andrew Fraser has been appointed the estate's administrator.

He's heading to Alan's house to start the process of winding up his estate

and to recover anything of value or interest to the heirs.

Quite frankly, most heirs will only receive a few thousand pounds

and the sentimental items will be of much more interest to them

and anyone involved, than the high-value items.

However, because this case has been a speculative case,

even at this late stage Andrew could make a discovery

that could mean all their work had been in vain.

Alan may have made a will.

If it exists, it's most likely to be amongst his papers.

The worst thing we could find is a will.

However, I would much rather find a will now at the beginning of the job,

rather than at the end of the process,

or on or before distribution, where a will turning up means difficulties for everyone involved.

If there is a will out there, I want to find it.

I don't want to find it in a year's time or two years' time.

It's very typical to what we normally find.

Looking out for a will is obviously key for Fraser's,

but Andrew's most important job

is looking out for details of Alan's financial arrangements and other sentimental items.

What we have here is a little boy in...

July 1943, and I suspect that could well be the deceased.

It's in these drawers where I will find things like the deeds and wills

and also some of the sentimental pieces.

I think this is something his mother kept,

little best wishes from various, I suspect, friends.

These are all shareholdings.

I'm looking for any details of banks, building societies, statements.

There's £8,000 in this Bradford and Bingley account.

Premium Bonds.

That's shareholdings with Santander.

Now, this is the type of thing I've been looking for.

This is a savings book with entries in 2008, so very recent,

and our gentleman has £83,000.

I suspect this is one of many bank accounts we're going to find,

but he certainly has been saving

and he has been putting in about £500 a month

he has been putting into this saving account.

And the only things that have been coming out of this account is the tax.

Luckily for Fraser's, Andrew never managed to find a will,

but he did find over £300,000 in shares and accounts,

as well as many family heirlooms.

The total estate is now worth over £500,000.

Diana and her brother have now been confirmed as the only two beneficiaries to Alan's estate.

Despite Alan becoming withdrawn at the end of his life,

Diana has happier memories of her cousin.

That particular photograph was rather nice

because we went to see Humphrey Lyttelton at Beaulieu.

Alan loved his jazz.

He was a real jazz fanatic.

That was a really lovely day, that.

I feel quite sad that Alan has ended up this way,

because when I think of the times that we had when we were young,

we all got on very well.

Being a very quiet person,

I think it was very easy for him to drift into a life of being on his own.

We tried our best to sort of include him in the family,

but I think it was up to him

whether he wanted to continue the relationship with his cousins, with us.

In hindsight, you sort of think, well, now I realise I shouldn't have let that go,

but it all comes to us a bit too late, really.

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