Greatrex/Gaweda Heir Hunters

Every year, thousands of people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives come forward,

their estate will go to the government.

Keeping this money in the family is a job for the heir hunters.

On today's programme, lightning really does strike twice

as the heir hunters uncover an amazing coincidence.

She's a double beneficiary inside twelve months.

It's a little strange!

And the search for heirs to a Polish soldier's estate crosses every border...

Having luck on your side is always important in cracking a case.

That's why I looked into Spain.

..as they uncover the incredible story of his unbelievable suffering

and personal bravery.

We in Britain have to be grateful we didn't have to live through it.

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?

In the UK, two-thirds of people don't have a will.

When they die, the law states that unless the authorities can find an obvious heir,

their money goes to the government.

Last year, the Treasury pocketed a staggering £18 million in unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunters step in.

There are over 30 companies who make it their business to trace the heirs to this money

and help them claim it back.

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

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

They make their commission by solving cases and signing up heirs.

Over the last ten years, they've enabled over 50,000 heirs

to claim over £100 million.

Thursday is the most important day of the week at Fraser & Fraser's central London office

because that's when the Treasury releases its weekly list of unclaimed estates.

Have you got addresses there of neighbours, Jo?

The team's first job is to work out which ones are going to be worth the most.

That's gonna be... That first one in '25.

This morning, nothing's looking very promising.

We're looking at the case of Douglas Walter Greatrex at the moment.

I've got a query about whether it's got any value on it.

The heir hunters have discovered that the deceased owned a property.

This usually means the estate would be quite substantial.

But there is something unusual about this case.

He doesn't own the lease of the property.

But the freehold of the property is in the deceased's name.

Freeholds aren't worth a huge amount of money.

It is a property case, but it may be worth a couple of thousand pounds,

not a couple of hundred thousand pounds, as we'd hoped.

The company has a lot of manpower and resources and can afford to take a chance on smaller-looking cases.

So Neil decides to go with it and puts case manager David Pacifico in charge of the investigation.

We're gonna be working this Greatrex case.

It looks like this case will be centred in Birmingham,

so David calls Midland-based senior researcher Paul Matthews to get him up to speed.

'We're not 100% certain...'

Sorry, hang on a second.

-We need the enquiry.

-Yeah, can you do the enquiry?

-Ask him for the death.

-And we need the death of the deceased.

OK. Cheers. Bye.

Thanks, Paul. Bye.

Like all the company's travelling researchers,

Paul is poised to follow any lead he's given

and make sure that he beats the competition and reaches the heirs first.

Paul's off to Birmingham register office. He's faxed through a request for Douglas's death certificate

and his parents' marriage certificate.

But now he needs to pick them up.

They contain the information the team need

to start building up his family tree and tracing heirs.

Douglas Greatrex lived his whole life in Birmingham.

He was born and grew up in the traditional working class area of Newton Street,

in the heart of the city.

Several photos survive from his childhood,

particularly his time in the boy scouts.

According to his close friend Angela Common,

Douglas grew up to be a proper gent of the old school.

He was smiley, he was friendly and he was the perfect gentleman.

You know, old-fashioned.

He'd open the door and pay for your tea.

Angela met Douglas when she went to work for him in his tool manufacturing business.

She then left to have a family,

but years later, they bumped into each other and struck up a close friendship.

By now, Angela was on her own with the children and Douglas became an important part of their lives.

We sort of adopted him

and he would sort of tweak in to what the kids would like

and spoil them a bit.

And I'd say, "Doug, they think they can have what they want, and they can't!"

Just little things like an ice cream or a book.

I don't know how many dictionaries he bought for the kids. He loved his books.

Although he ran a successful business,

Douglas always felt unsatisfied in his job.

I think he resented it cos he wasn't content doing it.

It was a means of making money.

He'd talk to the kids and encourage them to do well at school.

"You don't want to end up in a factory like me."

Although he regretted not receiving a better education,

Douglas was able to escape from the daily grind into a world of books.

He'd go home, behind his front door, he'd be in his office.

Wall-to-wall books and he'd be tapping away there.

He'd come up with stories. He was very into his thrillers.

With the writing,

that was his world.

"Go and get yourself a lady friend, or something!"

He'd go, "Oh, no, I don't need that.

"My books and my computer, that'll do for me."

Yeah.

Douglas wrote one story especially for Angela's children,

naming one of the characters Amelia, after her daughter.

He got two copies bound

and gave one to the adopted family who inspired him.

I think the kids thought a lot of Doug because Doug went out of his way for them.

It's like he became that family member.

I think he was relishing the thought that he was our family.

You know, a father, grandfather figure.

In heir hunting, so much rests on the surnames involved.

A rare surname like Greatrex should be easy to research

because it stands out in the records.

But there are other factors to consider.

Although there may only be 1,000 people with that surname in the country,

they all live within a 20- or 30-mile radius of each other.

That way, it makes it harder to identify the individuals

because all the John Greatrexes live in Birmingham, for instance.

Sure enough, the team immediately run into a problem.

They know that Douglas's mother's name was Harvey.

Print that one out.

And researcher Jo has found two marriages between a Greatrex and a Harvey in Birmingham.

One in 1916, and one ten years later in 1926.

Case manager David Pacifico reckons he knows which one is right.

It's likely to be the 1926 rather than 1916

because the deceased was born in '34.

So I should hopefully hear something soon from Paul Matthews.

But Paul can't help them cos he's stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the register office.

So until he can get his hands on the actual marriage certificate,

the team need to research both possibilities.

David,

the first marriage, some of it's online.

Debbie has come across the 1916 marriage on a genealogy website,

most likely posted by some family member.

The first marriage, Doris to George A. Greatrex.

It's his family history, and some pictures as well.

I'll know soon which is the right marriage.

But Paul's still a long way from his destination.

Luckily, he's very well known to the guys in the register office

so he pulls over to see if he can get the answers he needs over the phone.

-'Hello?'

-Hi, John, I've cut about 20 people up and got off the Bristol Road.

-'Are we smiling?'

-Yes, we are.

'Presumably, you only want the marriage

-'if the groom is called George Andrew, yes?'

-Yes.

'Right. Discard one of them.'

In one call, Paul gets the key facts that he needs to get this case moving.

He phones through the all-important information to the office.

Right, the marriage.

-Yep.

-3 December, 1916.

It looks like David's hunch that Douglas's parents were married in 1926 was wrong.

-They're all brothers and sisters. Work up those marriages.

-We've got a nephew.

But the good news is that the correct marriage is the one with the online family tree.

So the team already have all the information they need to put it together.

Douglas's parents were George Andrew Greatrex and Doris Harvey.

They had seven children, two of whom had died young.

And Douglas was the youngest in the family by a gap of nine years.

Doris born in 1925, then a nine-year gap

and Douglas just comes out at the end of that.

So...

Nine years in-between it,

which may explain why the family have split up and separated.

-Somebody's given me John L's neighbours.

-I gave you John L's neighbours.

The team have made great progress on this case and it's still only 8.30 in the morning.

It's coming up very quickly. It's difficult to keep up.

-I'd like to get someone to Birmingham.

-Ewart's doing an enquiry in Windsor.

-Once he's done his enquiry in Windsor, send him up.

-OK.

David Pacifico calls senior researcher Ewart Lindsay.

-'Hello, Ewart.'

-Hi, Dave.

He's currently in Maidenhead in Berkshire.

'I've arranged an appointment at one o'clock in Tamworth.

'I thought I'd leave that one with you.'

-Cheers, Dave.

-'Bye.'

With two senior researchers in the area,

ready to sign up heirs as soon as the office can identify them,

the team are well placed to tie up this investigation in record time.

But still to come: an amazing coincidence takes this heir hunt into unchartered territory.

This bit of tree automatically joins on to here.

And one heir gets a very unexpected phone call.

You won't believe this, but we believe you're a beneficiary on another estate we're looking in to.

Although some heir hunts unravel quickly, and are concentrated in one specific area,

others remain unsolved for years

and take in many different countries and a broad sweep of history.

Tadeusz Gaweda was just such a case.

He died in 1991

in this house in Forest Hill in south London,

leaving an estate worth £37,000.

But no will.

His case had remained unsolved for many years,

when Hector Birchwood from heir hunting firm Celtic Research took it on.

Hector remembers coming across his unusual name on the Treasury's weekly list of unclaimed estates.

When I immediately saw the name Gaweda,

my assumption at that point was that it was Polish.

Of course, that could mean Ukrainian Polish,

that could mean Belarusian Polish,

there are a number of Polish communities in central Europe,

and in places like Italy or France.

So really at that point it really didn't tell me a lot.

Hector started investigations by looking for Tadeusz's death certificate.

Well, the death certificate is usually of some help.

But the information you get is only as good as the informant.

So they may not know the deceased or may not know as much as they think they know.

In Tadeusz's case, although the date of death in 1991 was correct,

there was obviously a mistake with the birth,

which was also shown as being in 1991.

According to the certificate, he was born in Poland.

But was that a mistake as well?

As a matter of protocol, we always look for the birth in this country. We couldn't find one.

Without a birth certificate or any reliable information,

Hector had nothing to go on.

He knew that trying to find this information from public records in Poland

might prove challenging.

For the moment, he was stumped.

Hector then had an inspired thought.

He decided to cross-reference Tadeusz's death

by going back to the death index record

held in the general register office.

Sure enough, the record revealed that Tadeusz had been born in 1929.

From there, Hector found he had arrived in England in 1946

with the Polish Resettlement Corps.

When the Second World War ended,

many Polish soldiers, who had fought alongside the British against the Nazis

chose not to return to what was now Communist Poland.

Instead, they came to live in the UK.

When the soldiers first arrived, they were housed in temporary camps

until they were able to start a new life in this country.

Many of the people who came here during World War II or just after,

from the Ukraine, from Poland, from any other places,

often had to reinvent themselves and establish themselves here.

They often could not go back.

So they got married and they had children here,

possibly even if they had a wife back home.

That does happen.

So we were mindful of the possibility that he may have been previously married.

But we did look for a marriage for him here.

That's when we came across a marriage.

That was really the first break in the case.

Hector discovered that Tadeusz married Carmen Garrido

in Willesden, London, in 1957.

Any time we do find a marriage, it does bring up some hope, a few glimmers of hope.

There's a possibility there might be children.

There's a possibility that we may be able to find the spouse's family

who may be able to tell us something about the deceased's family.

Maybe give us names and addresses of his family.

There are always glimmers of hope whenever we find a marriage

but we didn't know exactly where that would lead.

With two unusual surnames like Gaweda and Garrido,

it wasn't long before Hector came across birth records for some children,

born in Alcester in Warwickshire.

Tadeusz and Carmen had three children.

A son, Roberto, and two daughters,

all of whom would be heirs to their father's £37,000 estate.

Once we found the births, it really threw open the case.

We could see that the deceased had biological children,

they may have been adopted, they may have changed their names,

but at least it offered an avenue

by which we could crack this case

and find some rightful heirs for his estate.

But then the trail ran cold.

There was no further trace of Tadeusz's children in this country.

If they had left England when they were very young,

they could have been anywhere by now.

But he took a guess that someone with a surname like Garrido

their mother may have taken them to Spain.

Having a bit of luck on your side is always important in cracking a case.

That's really why I looked into Spain.

It just seemed like it fitted better than other places.

I wasn't sure, but it looked better than the other options.

Another piece of luck for Hector was that he speaks fluent Spanish

so he was ideally placed to conduct an investigation there.

One of the things we did find just by trawling through the internet

was that the family of Gaweda/Garrido is only centred in one place in Spain.

In Valencia.

The case was cracked, as far as I was concerned. I just needed to find people and talk to them.

Hector found a recent record for Tadeusz's son, Roberto,

online, along with some contact details.

So he decided to make a first attempt to contact him.

SPEAKS SPANISH

Still to come:

Initially our contact with Roberto wasn't exactly very successful.

Hector's heir hunt runs into a spot of bother.

-TRANSLATION:

-I thought it was a con.

And in the search for Douglas Greatrex's heirs,

one beneficiary gets a lot more than she bargained for.

-It might pay for a holiday.

-Might get a bit further than Blackpool!

For every case that is solved,

there are still thousands that 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've got two cases heir hunters have so far failed to solve.

Could you be the missing link?

Could you be in line for a payout?

Mustafa Kamal died in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey,

on 8 November 2005.

Was he a friend or neighbour of yours?

Could you even be related to him

and entitled to his estate?

Bertha Helen Hutson passed away on 16 October 1998

in Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

If no relatives come forward,

her money will go to the government.

But should it be headed your way?

If the names Mustafa Kamal or Bertha Helen Hutson mean anything to you,

you could have a fortune coming your way.

Heir hunter Hector Birchwood

was searching for heirs to Tadeusz Gaweda's £37,000 estate.

He gambled that Tadeusz's children had returned to Spain with their mother, Carmen,

and his gamble paid off.

He found a phone number for Tadeusz's son, Roberto,

who was out when he called.

So he left a message telling him that he could be a beneficiary of an estate.

SPEAKS SPANISH

IN SPANISH

My first impression was that it was a con.

One of those internet scams

where they contact you and tell you you've inherited money.

As Hector had guessed, Roberto's parents' marriage had broken down.

His mother had taken the children back to live with her parents in Spain.

He called the house one time when we were in Madrid.

But my mother was always so scared that he would come and take us away.

Legally, she had been in the wrong.

At that time, you needed a father's permission if children left the country without him.

Tadeusz never made another attempt to contact his children.

Roberto's mother never spoke of him.

So Roberto's only knowledge of his father

were a few photos and the stories told to him by his grandfather.

My grandfather came to England once with my grandmother when we were very little.

He met my father, and it seems they had a lot in common.

He always said he was a very intelligent man

and a very hard worker.

I can't help thinking I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to him.

But after talking to Hector, Roberto decided to come over to England

to find out what he could about the father he never knew.

For me, this is the final conclusion of my father's life.

The great thing is that now I have the chance to finish the story.

Being able to fill in the gaps of his life that I never knew

will help me to understand him better.

With the case solved, Hector arranged to meet Roberto,

to give him the information and paperwork provided by the Treasury.

This included the immigration application

that was written by the Home Office when Tadeusz arrived in Britain in 1946.

GREET IN SPANISH

This brief paragraph gave a fascinating insight

into his early life during one of the darkest periods of European history.

IN SPANISH

The document revealed that his father was actually born in France in 1929.

The family only moved to eastern Poland in 1933.

But any hopes of a peaceful family life were destroyed

when, in 1939, Hitler's army invaded Poland

and Tadeusz was thrown into the chaos of the Second World War.

Poland was invaded by the Nazis on Friday 1st September 1939.

A week or so before,

the Nazis and Russians had signed a non-aggression pact

which gave Hitler the green light to invade Poland.

Also, secret clauses were in place

that gave Russia the green light to invade eastern Poland

which it did on 17 September 1939.

Ten-year-old Tadeusz was captured by the Russians

and deported along with thousands of other Poles to a Russian labour camp.

Conditions in all Russian labour camps were extremely harsh,

not only for those Poles perceived as the class enemies of Russia,

but also the people that had been swept up under Stalin's purges

and put into the Gulags.

Very poor food, long hours of hard, and sometimes senseless labour as well.

Then, in 1942, Hitler invaded Russia.

Tadeusz was dragged back to Germany to work as slave labour for the Nazi war machine.

The German war economy was so dependent on foreign labour.

To give you an example, in 1944,

there were over seven million foreigners working in Germany.

The vast majority were slave labourers

that the Nazis had taken in manhunts

throughout eastern occupied Europe.

Amazingly, Tadeusz, still only in his early teens,

and risking execution if he'd been caught,

managed to escape from Germany.

Somehow, he crossed the border to Italy and hooked up with fellow Poles.

His army records show he joined the Polish Resettlement Corps

in 1946 to help with the clean-up.

Tadeusz's incredible journey came to an end not long after

when he arrived in England to start a new life after the chaos of the war years.

I think that Tadeusz's story is not an untypical one

for people that lived in central Europe.

We in Britain have to be very grateful we didn't have to live through it.

I'm afraid it is so typical of so many hundreds of thousands of people

especially younger people,

who were really buffeted between the two sides

of National Socialism - Nazism -

and Soviet Communism.

Having learned about his father's astonishing history from Hector,

Roberto then set off on the final stage of his journey

to Kington Camp in Herefordshire.

According to the records,

this is where Tadeusz was housed along with many other Polish soldiers

when they first arrived in this country.

Local historian Kenneth Reeves showed him round the camp.

These are the sort of huts that your father would have been billeted in.

They were originally built for the American army as a hospital.

They were designed to last for 25 years. That was in 1943.

They've now been here something like 66 years

and they're rather beginning to show their age

and most of them are falling down.

Compared to what Tadeusz would have experienced in Germany and Russia,

this camp would have been like a five-star hotel.

But for Roberto, it was a very moving experience.

-TRANSLATION:

-It makes me feel sad, very sad,

how my father could have survived before, during and after the war.

I had no idea before all this how he could have endured such a terrible life.

So, this is it.

The end of a story that I didn't get to hear about first hand.

But at least now I can say that I know about my father's life

and it's helped me to understand him.

Tadeusz's life, and that of millions of Europeans

caught between the Nazi and communist regimes during the war

was one of unimaginable suffering and hardship.

Sadly, Tadeusz never got to see his children grow up.

But he did manage to leave them a legacy of £37,000

which was ultimately shared between the three of them.

For Hector,

it was a satisfying end to a case that could have remained unsolved

if he hadn't retrieved it from that bottom drawer.

I'm really pleased that the case eventually came to a successful fruition.

First of all because I could justify the amount of time I spent on this case.

Second of all,

because my hunch was right in going to Spain.

More than that, really, is that I was very happy

to know that some of these cases that are unsolved

can still be solved, can still be cracked,

if you have enough determination

or at least if you have the right kind of luck, like I did!

Fraser and Fraser have been looking into the case of Douglas Greatrex

who died aged 75 in Birmingham.

Douglas was the youngest of his siblings by several years

and had fallen out of touch with his extended family.

When he died, he owned a property

but he didn't own the leasehold, which will affect the value of his estate.

It is a property case, but it may be worth a couple of thousand,

not a couple of hundred thousand pounds as we'd hoped for.

The team got off to a great start with their investigation.

It wasn't long before they'd managed to trace 16 of Douglas's heirs.

-Someone gave me John L's neighbours.

-I gave you those.

There's quite a few siblings of the deceased.

This is near kin.

For the heir hunters, if they can't find any children of the deceased,

the next best result is to find near kin,

meaning siblings or nieces and nephews.

-Hi, Paul.

-Hi, Dave.

-We've got it up to date with near kin on it.

-Right.

We've got addresses of a niece and a couple of nephews in Birmingham.

OK. Catch you later. Cheers. Bye.

Paul's just round the corner from the first address he's been given.

There's no-one in, so he tries the neighbours.

Sorry, I'm trying to get hold of your neighbour, Trevor. Does he work in the day?

Paul calls David Pacifico in the office to give him the bad news.

It's always the way. We get the early breakthroughs

but people are at work, aren't they?

We've got more addresses for Trevor's siblings.

-Yeah?

-We've got a Roy living at Yardley.

Okey-cokey, Dave.

David's finally managed to make an appointment with one of Douglas's heirs.

His nephew, Roy Stevens, is the eldest son of Douglas's sister Doris

and her husband Sydney.

Mr Stevens? Paul Matthews, Fraser and Fraser, a probate research company.

We deal with the estates of people who pass away without making wills.

We think you're entitled to an estate we're dealing with.

-Got a few minutes?

-OK.

-Thank you very much.

Paul needs to check that Roy is actually Douglas's nephew.

He gets straight down to business.

Right, your mum, Doris. Did she have brothers and sisters?

-Yeah. Dougie.

-OK.

-It's not him gone, is it?

-Uh, yeah.

-Dougie? I had a horrible feeling it was Dougie.

He passed away. He hasn't...

Roy remembers Douglas well,

so his death comes as a shock.

-Carry on.

-Take your time.

-I'm all right.

Dougie, yeah.

What do you know about Dougie?

We actually seen a lot of Dougie up until Mum went.

And then, all of a sudden,

we sort of lost sight of him and things.

-Just disappeared? How long ago? Years?

-A long time ago.

I guess that at the end of the day, if Douglas saved a few bob, fair play to him.

Cos we haven't helped!

He's obviously saved it for you.

If you get a few bob, what will you do with it?

-I don't know. Have a drink.

-Have a drink. OK, that's nice.

Thanks for your time. I'll speak to you later on. Cheers. Bye!

By the end of their meeting, Roy's happy for Frasers to assist him in his claim.

And Paul's delighted to have signed up his first heir.

But just then, something rather extraordinary happens.

Back in the office, Neil has just made a connection

that takes everyone by surprise.

What we've just found out

is that this is a tree which I've just printed off

from a case run by Marcus at the beginning of this year.

Eight months ago, the heir hunters dealt with the case of a Peter William Greatrex,

also from Birmingham,

who, it turns out, was Douglas Greatrex's nephew.

Peter William, his father was William Arthur Greatrex.

William Arthur Greatrex is on this tree over here...

..sat here as a brother of the deceased.

So this bit of tree automatically joins onto here.

If Peter Greatrex had lived,

he would have inherited some of his Uncle Douglas's estate.

But as it is, his share will pass to his daughter Samantha,

who, eight months ago, discovered that she was to inherit from her father's £6,000 estate.

NEIL: She is now a beneficiary on this estate as well.

So she's a double beneficiary inside 12 months.

Um, it's a little strange.

Ten months ago, when Samantha was contacted during the last series of Heir Hunters,

she learned that her father had died.

The news was a great shock to her, as her parents had split up when she was a baby

and that was the last she'd seen of him.

It was strange that it was a loss. I felt a loss.

Although you've lost somebody who's a part of you

you know nothing about them

and that's quite difficult.

I always thought that I'd get the chance to at least say goodbye.

That sounds a bit strange.

Say goodbye to somebody that you don't know.

Less than a year on, and the heir hunters have another reason to get in touch with Samantha.

I'm gonna phone her up now.

It's fallen to case manager David Pacifico

to break the news to her that she's lost another relative.

'Hello. Miss Greatrex?'

It's Fraser and Fraser.

Hello, there. You won't believe this, but we believe you would be a beneficiary on another estate.

Well, this one is going back through your grandfather's side of the family.

Yes, unbelievable.

Samantha is also based in Birmingham, so David sends Paul straight round to see her.

-Hi, Samantha. Paul Matthews, Fraser and Fraser.

-Nice to meet you.

-Come in.

-Cheers.

Paul goes back over Samantha's family tree

to show her how she's related to her deceased great-uncle Douglas.

-Do you know anything about your grandparents at all?

-No,

only what I got told by Frasers, their names.

For Samantha, it's the second time in less than a year

that she's been confronted with information about relations that she never knew she had.

It's sad the circumstances it comes about.

But this one's a nice one compared to the last one.

It's very distant. You never knew the person.

His estate is either gonna go to people like yourself,

or to the government. It's better going to you.

-You can add it to the other one.

-At least I can get somewhere with it.

-It might pay for a holiday.

-I might get a bit further than Blackpool!

Samantha's very happy to let Frasers assist her on making her second inheritance claim.

So she signs up.

You've got one of these already. You can collect them!

You're totally unique!

Twice in ten months. Fantastic.

Paul's got a busy afternoon ahead of him.

He heads off to his next appointment.

All the best. Hope you get a nice sum of money.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers. Bye!

-Bye.

In all, the team have uncovered 16 heirs to Douglas Greatrex's estate,

who all need to be visited and signed up.

Luckily, senior researcher Ewart Lindsay has arrived to help

and has gone straight to the house of one of Douglas's nieces.

Hello, Mrs Margetts. Ewart Lindsay from Fraser and Fraser.

-OK. Do you want to come in?

-Thank you.

Yvonne is the daughter of another of Douglas's brothers,

Harry Greatrex.

She, along with her four surviving brothers and sisters,

all stand to inherit from their uncle's estate.

-Do you have an idea who the deceased is?

-Yes, Dougie.

That's correct.

Unlike Samantha, Yvonne did know her Uncle Dougie, although she hadn't seen him in a long while.

-Do you know if he had his own house?

-I don't know.

The last time I seen him, he was living with my nan, his mother.

In the end, Frasers signed up all 16 of Douglas's heirs.

His estate turned out to be worth £13,000,

which was split between them all.

None of them got a life-changing sum of money, but all got a reminder of the importance of family

and a dear and long-lost uncle.

I saw him probably when I was 15, so we're going back 30 years!

I very rarely saw him, actually. He used to be quite a recluse.

He kept himself to himself.

The first thought that crossed my mind was,

"Who buried him?" Was it family? Was it friends?

Someone, you know, who knew him.

Not nobody who didn't know him.

Although Douglas wasn't a very outgoing person,

he did have a few close friends who were there for him at the end

and gave him a proper send-off.

The funeral itself was taken by his local vicar, the Rev Greg Mensing.

Occasionally, there are funerals which I take like Doug's,

where there are very few people,

but they were all there

because they loved him

and because they wanted to pay their last respects

to a man that they cared for.

Of those who did attend the funeral,

he will be missed most by his dear friend, Angela,

and her children, who were his surrogate family.

For weeks after he'd gone,

the phone would go, and I'd often wish, "Is that Doug?"

It really took a while to accept

that's not him on the end of the phone any more.

Yeah.

You know, that phone call out of the blue,

"Hi, how are you doing?" We don't get that every day, do we?

I think that was nice. And he always made you smile.

He wasn't happy unless he put a smile on your face.

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