0:00:02 > 0:00:04Today, the heir hunters are looking into an estate
0:00:04 > 0:00:06worth a possible £80,000.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10Across the UK, the hunt is on for the relatives
0:00:10 > 0:00:12who could be in line for a windfall.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Could someone be knocking at your door?
0:00:31 > 0:00:36On today's show, the heir hunters take a massive risk
0:00:36 > 0:00:40on an estate that may have debts attached.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42The work we do is a big gamble,
0:00:42 > 0:00:44cos we don't know the value of the estate.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48And the team uncover the story of a courageous lady who braved bombs
0:00:48 > 0:00:53and blazes to serve her country during the Second World War.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58It was a dangerous job. You would be out in the raids,
0:00:58 > 0:01:03subject to the same kind of risks that the men were.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Plus, how you could be entitled to unclaimed estates
0:01:05 > 0:01:08where beneficiaries have not yet been found.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Could a windfall be coming your way?
0:01:16 > 0:01:17Every year in the UK,
0:01:17 > 0:01:22an estimated 300,000 people die without leaving a will.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25If no relatives are found, then any money that's left behind
0:01:25 > 0:01:27will go to the government.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Last year, they made £12 million from unclaimed estates.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35There are over 30 specialist firms competing to stop this happening.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40They're called heir hunters and they make it their business
0:01:40 > 0:01:43to track down missing relatives and help them claim their rightful inheritance.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49I make sure that the government doesn't seize assets
0:01:49 > 0:01:51which do not belong to them.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59It's 7am on a Thursday morning, and staff at Fraser & Fraser,
0:01:59 > 0:02:03the UK's largest heir hunting firm, are already hard at work.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06The Treasury have just published their list of people
0:02:06 > 0:02:11who've died without leaving a will. The team are poring over the names.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13Today's list is particularly lengthy.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21Absolutely huge list for us today. I can't work them all.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22There's 38 on the list.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25But one case has caught partner Neil's attention.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29The only case we're looking at actively at the moment
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and drawing up trees is a case called Luckarift.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35The reason we're doing that is
0:02:35 > 0:02:39we were able to find the deceased was a company director at one time.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44Heir hunters are paid a percentage of an estate's final value.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48So there must be enough money in the case for them to cover costs
0:02:48 > 0:02:50and hopefully make a profit.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53A company director is likely to have had high earning power
0:02:53 > 0:02:56and could have left a substantial sum of money.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59So Neil is hopeful this will be a valuable estate.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08Edward Luckarift died on 29th March 2010 in North Wales.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10He was 90 years old.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14He spent the last years of his life
0:03:14 > 0:03:17in the small Welsh seaside resort of Penmaenmawr, and it was here
0:03:17 > 0:03:22that he struck up a friendship with fireman Harry Colecliffe.
0:03:22 > 0:03:23Harry met Edward by chance
0:03:23 > 0:03:27when he was conducting a training exercise in a scrapyard.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Somebody came running into the scrapyard, and said,
0:03:31 > 0:03:36"There's an elderly gentleman on the floor outside, near the road."
0:03:36 > 0:03:40We got the crew together, went out to render first aid
0:03:40 > 0:03:42and phoned an ambulance. And that was Edward.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46And just as he was getting into the ambulance, he handed me some keys
0:03:46 > 0:03:50and said, "Could you look after my dog?" And off he went.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52That was the first time I met Edward.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It was also the beginning of a strong friendship,
0:03:56 > 0:04:01as Harry started to visit Edward in hospital.
0:04:01 > 0:04:02I was stuck with his dog,
0:04:02 > 0:04:06so I went to find out how long he'd be in hospital,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11and it built up a friendship. He was a real gentleman.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Quite a wit about him. He had so many interesting little stories.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20So you sat there and you didn't actually say a word!
0:04:20 > 0:04:24All you would say is, "Oh, what happened then?"
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Off he'd go again and tell you another part of the story!
0:04:28 > 0:04:32In the office, Neil has tracked down Edward's address,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35but he's also discovered a financial record
0:04:35 > 0:04:38which suggests there may be debts on this estate.
0:04:38 > 0:04:46That address has got a caution on...by a bankruptcy firm,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48which doesn't sound that good,
0:04:48 > 0:04:53but I think it's because he probably owned it at some time.
0:04:53 > 0:04:59Taking on a case where the deceased has filed for bankruptcy is risky.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02If there's no money in the estate, the team could end up
0:05:02 > 0:05:03working for no reward.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06But if Edward owned the property he lived in, in Wales,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08it could be worth £80,000.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12So Neil thinks it's a risk worth taking.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17There are very few people with the surname Luckarift in Britain.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19The team have less names to work with
0:05:19 > 0:05:23and a higher chance of finding the right family.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26So research gets off to a flying start,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and by 8am, Neil thinks he's found Edward's paternal grandparents.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Frederick Alfred, he's 50, so was born in 1860.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Anywhere in particular?
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Er, Jersey. This one here, wife is Carterelle.
0:05:41 > 0:05:47They were married circa 1883 and they had three children.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50The father's side of the family appear to be
0:05:50 > 0:05:53based in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Neil believes Edward's paternal grandparents
0:05:56 > 0:05:58were Frederick and Carterelle Luckarift.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00They had three children -
0:06:00 > 0:06:04Kathleen, Evelyn and Frederick, who is Edward's father.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Kathleen and Evelyn would be Edward's paternal aunts.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11And if they had any living children,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14they could be heirs to Edward's estate.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19At the moment, I'm looking at the Evelyn stem.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22She's married to a Nightscale, but I've just found her death.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25She's died as Nightscales. Even though she's changed the name slightly,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28she still hasn't had any children.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32So looks like it's probably a dead stem, unless she adopted someone.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35If Evelyn has had no children,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37the only remaining hope on the father's side
0:06:37 > 0:06:43is Edward's aunt Kathleen, but Gareth is having trouble tracking her down.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48All we know is that she's born around 1889, in Jersey,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and living in 1911 in Salford. Other than that, I'm not finding anything.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56Most likely scenario is she's gone back to Jersey.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00The team still don't know whether there's any money in this estate,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04so all their hard work could end up being for nothing.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07But it's still only 8.30 and, although they've hit a dead end
0:07:07 > 0:07:11on the father's side, on the mother's side, they're racing ahead.
0:07:12 > 0:07:18So we've got Ernest Cox, he's head. He's male. Born 1862.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23He's been married for 16 years. Wife, white female, born December...
0:07:24 > 0:07:261865.
0:07:26 > 0:07:321865. She's married. OK, so now we know, that on the mother's side,
0:07:32 > 0:07:33there's only her and her brother.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38Tony has discovered that Edward's maternal grandparents,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43Ernest Gresley Cox and Amelie, only had two children -
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Edward's mother Ernestine and her brother, Edward.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51Edward Gresley Cox was born in 1891, which would make him 23
0:07:51 > 0:07:52at the outbreak of the First World War.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57So Neil wonders whether there might be an army record for him.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00British Army. Is he old enough for the Army? Yes.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03His hunch proves correct.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07He was a Flight Lieutenant. General...
0:08:07 > 0:08:10No, he'd be in the Royal Flying Corps, wouldn't he?
0:08:10 > 0:08:12He is, he's in the Royal Flying Corps.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17From an old army record, Neil has discovered that Edward Luckarift's
0:08:17 > 0:08:22uncle, Edward Gresley Cox, fought for his country in World War I.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25He trained as a pilot and served as Second Lieutenant
0:08:25 > 0:08:30in the Royal Flying Corps from 1917 to 1918.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34The Royal Flying Corps is a separate entity of the British Army.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39It was formed in 1912. They'd been going about two years before
0:08:39 > 0:08:41the First War started.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46The First World War introduced a new form of battleground.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Whereas before, wars were fought on land and sea, the development
0:08:50 > 0:08:54of the aeroplane meant the battle could also be taken to the skies.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58And this created a new kind of hero.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Brave young aviators prepared to risk their lives in the skies
0:09:01 > 0:09:04far above the battlefields.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10It certainly attracted people with more of a spirit of adventure,
0:09:10 > 0:09:16and many chaps I met were certainly slightly different.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20They had this sense of adventure. Aviation attracted people like this.
0:09:20 > 0:09:26During the First World War, Edward Gresley Cox was stationed
0:09:26 > 0:09:28out in Salonika in Greece,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31where the initial role of the British Army was to help the Serbs
0:09:31 > 0:09:35who were being attacked by German, Austro-Hungarian
0:09:35 > 0:09:36and Bulgarian forces.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41The Royal Flying Corps provided air support and reconnaissance.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46But being so far removed from front line action had its disadvantages.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51The other theatres where the British Army fought were known
0:09:51 > 0:09:54as the sideshows, sort of not the main event,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and any decent equipment was always held back for operations
0:09:58 > 0:09:59on the Western Front -
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Passchendaele, Arras and the Somme.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05These other theatres, and Salonika in particular,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09really got only the poor or obsolete equipment
0:10:09 > 0:10:12which wasn't needed on the Western Front.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15These obsolete aircraft were no match
0:10:15 > 0:10:17for the modern German machines,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20which were faster and much more effective in battle.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24The British response to this problem was to borrow some fighters
0:10:24 > 0:10:26from the French air force.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29But these planes also came with built-in problems.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33The aeroplanes they borrowed off the French was the Nieuport Scout,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36a standard fighter in the French Air Service.
0:10:36 > 0:10:42It was equipped with a rotary engine. These were pretty unreliable
0:10:42 > 0:10:47and could be fickle, so engine failures were not infrequent.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It was unfortunately while flying one of these aircraft
0:10:50 > 0:10:52that Edward Gresley Cox died.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59On February 22nd, 1918, he and another pilot
0:10:59 > 0:11:01in another French Nieuport Scout
0:11:01 > 0:11:03went out on a reconnaissance mission.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08Unfortunately, Gresley Cox had an engine failure,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12and while trying to put the aircraft down on suitable terrain,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16crashed and was killed.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Back in the office, Neil has just discovered
0:11:21 > 0:11:24this tragic turn of events.
0:11:24 > 0:11:25Killed.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27That's important.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32So he died 22nd February, '18.
0:11:32 > 0:11:39War records are a vital tool in genealogy, providing heir hunters
0:11:39 > 0:11:41with valuable clues about people's lives and family histories.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Most soldiers were required to make a will before going into combat.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50And it doesn't take Tony long to find one for Edward Gresley Cox.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55This is the probate for the uncle of the deceased,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58who was killed in the Royal Flying Corps in 1918.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03Just to say that he's left £141 in 1918.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08The team must establish who Edward Gresley Cox left his money to.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Could he have left it to a wife and children?
0:12:11 > 0:12:14If he did have children and they're still alive,
0:12:14 > 0:12:19they would be cousins of Edward Luckarift's and heirs to his estate,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21an estate whose value the team have yet to discover.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Coming up...
0:12:25 > 0:12:29Neil has taken a risk in pursuing this estate.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31The work we do is one big gamble,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33cos we don't know the value of the estate.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38And he's about to find out whether that gamble has paid off.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Heir hunting cases can come from a variety of different sources.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Most are published on the Treasury list, but some are referred
0:12:51 > 0:12:54by individuals or solicitors acting on their behalf.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56This was the case with Diana Paine.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59She lived an exciting and glamorous life,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01surrounded by people who loved her.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05She was always full of life and game to do anything at all.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09But for some reason, she decided not to leave a will.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15Diana died on 14th April 2010, in Langton Green near Tunbridge Wells.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17She was 91 years old.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21She had spent the last 18 years of her life with her companion,
0:13:21 > 0:13:27Ernest Armstrong, who she met via a lonely hearts advert in a magazine.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30My wife died in 1991,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34and, like a lot of men,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38not knowing what to do with themselves,
0:13:38 > 0:13:43I put the advert into the magazine, and Diana got in touch with me.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Both of us were looking for one thing and one thing only,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49and that was companionship.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54You can't wander round a house all day long looking at pictures.
0:13:54 > 0:14:00You have to do something. We were very lucky. We clicked right away.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Diana left an estate worth £20,000,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07but she died without leaving a will.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I don't know why she didn't make a will. I've no idea.
0:14:11 > 0:14:17Whether simply because she didn't have any relations as such,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20or any nephews or nieces or anything like that,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23to whom the money would have gone.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28Keen to find out whether Diana did have any family,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32and thus prevent her money going straight to the government,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Ernest contacted a firm of solicitors.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37They referred the case to the heir hunters.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41We were instructed by the solicitors. They knew we could act quickly
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and try to trace the next of kin.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47There was some urgency to get this case tied up.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Diana had been living in rented accommodation,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53and until an heir was found who could legally cancel the rental
0:14:53 > 0:14:57agreement, rent would continue to be paid out of her estate.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01So the pressure was on case manager Dave Slee to find some heirs
0:15:01 > 0:15:03before the money ran out.
0:15:04 > 0:15:10At the start, the only information Dave had to go on was that Diana had once been married to a Harry Paine.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16His first step was therefore to obtain a marriage certificate.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18The information on the marriage certificate confirmed
0:15:18 > 0:15:25that the deceased in fact had been married previously and that marriage had ended in divorce.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29I was then able to find the deceased's first marriage to a Mr Salmon,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34which was about six years prior to her second marriage.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Diana married her first husband John Griffith Salmon in 1940,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41but divorced him some time during the Second World War.
0:15:41 > 0:15:49She went on to marry Harry Paine in 1946, and stayed with him until his death some 40 years later.
0:15:49 > 0:15:57But sadly neither of these marriages produced any children, which was a cause of great sadness to Diana.
0:15:57 > 0:16:03She certainly would have loved to have had a family of her own, which she unfortunately couldn't have.
0:16:03 > 0:16:09Even Cocker Spaniels don't make up for the lack of children.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12The fact that Diana had had no children
0:16:12 > 0:16:16meant Dave would have to cast the net wider in his search for heirs.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21He knew from Diana's marriage certificates that her maiden name was Vaughan-Fowler.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23But this initially gave him cause for concern.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27I'm never happy researching double-barrelled surnames.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31They're often the product of people with delusions of grandeur and are made-up names.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35But in Diana's case, the name was genuine.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40She was born as Vaughan-Fowler and even her grandfather was born as Vaughan-Fowler
0:16:40 > 0:16:44so it was a name that had gone back in history with the family.
0:16:44 > 0:16:52Diana was born in West Sussex in 1919, the daughter of Alfred Vaughan-Fowler and Mabel Potter.
0:16:52 > 0:16:58She grew up and went to school in Tunbridge Wells and initially worked as a shorthand typist.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00But when the Second World War started,
0:17:00 > 0:17:07her life was to change dramatically, as all women of working age were conscripted into the war effort.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09There were an awful lot of jobs
0:17:09 > 0:17:15that needed to be done and we just didn't have the people to do them
0:17:15 > 0:17:17and so uniquely in our history,
0:17:17 > 0:17:23the entire female population was conscripted and they volunteered for all sorts of jobs.
0:17:24 > 0:17:30Before the war started, Diana's father had been a car salesman and he had taught her how to drive.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34It was quite unusual for women to drive at the time.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38The situation where, as happened with Diana,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41the fact that her father was in his line of work
0:17:41 > 0:17:46meant that it would be pretty easy for her to learn to drive.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51Generally, middle-class women might be the ones who learnt to drive.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56Diana volunteered to work as a driver for the National Fire Service.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01During the war, the demands on the fire service increased dramatically,
0:18:01 > 0:18:07as the Luftwaffe dropped bombs and incendiary devices on London and nearby towns.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13And as demand for personnel increased, so the roles of women began to change.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Initially women had a very limited range of roles that they were offered.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21There would be clerical and telephone work on switchboards.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23It expanded and expanded.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29Initially, what was perceived as something where women would work behind the dangerous stuff,
0:18:29 > 0:18:34very quickly, women were out as much as the men in the raids.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44Working for the fire service during the raids brought women like Diana into constant danger.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46It was a dangerous job.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48There's no two ways about it.
0:18:48 > 0:18:55You would be out in the raids and subject to the same kind of risks that the men were.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02The Germans learned when they were bombing cities
0:19:02 > 0:19:10that part of the tactics they evolved was that you would start fires through incendiaries
0:19:10 > 0:19:16and then once the fires were started, subsequent bombers would actually attack those fires
0:19:16 > 0:19:21and part of it would be about disrupting and targeting the services
0:19:21 > 0:19:24like the fire services and the ambulance services.
0:19:27 > 0:19:34Diana was based in Tunbridge Wells and was the driver for the chief of the Tunbridge Wells Fire Brigade.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39Tunbridge Wells was never subject to the intense bombardment that London suffered,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41but the job would still have involved certain risks.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45It was a brave job for a woman to do at the time, and it gave Diana
0:19:45 > 0:19:50a new-found status that she hadn't enjoyed before the war.
0:19:50 > 0:19:57She was very proud. She had a status as an officer in the fire service.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01She really enjoyed it very much. She enjoyed driving a lot.
0:20:01 > 0:20:08It was also while working in the fire service that Diana met her second husband, Harry Paine.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12At the end of the war, her husband, who had been in the Navy,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14joined the fire service
0:20:14 > 0:20:19and that is when they met up and got married in 1946.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25Harry had been injured during the war and he suffered from ill health throughout their marriage.
0:20:25 > 0:20:31But Diana was devoted to him and she looked after him until his death 40 years later.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Having established that Diana and her husband had no children,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Dave's next step was to track down any surviving siblings.
0:20:41 > 0:20:48Because we are dealing with a hyphenated surname, the research was fairly straightforward
0:20:48 > 0:20:55in being able to establish that the deceased had two siblings, one of whom died as an infant
0:20:55 > 0:20:59and the other sibling, whose name was Joan, she died as a spinster.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04This meant that Diana had no nieces or nephews,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09and Dave would have to expand the search to find any surviving heirs.
0:21:09 > 0:21:15Our next stage is to try and trace paternal and maternal family and their descendants.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20But while Diana's father's name Vaughan-Fowler was easy to research,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25simply because there aren't that many hyphenated Vaughan-Fowlers in Britain,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29investigating Diana's mother's side would prove much more difficult.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35I knew that the research on the maternal family, of the surname Potter, was likely to be far harder
0:21:35 > 0:21:42than researching the hyphenated Vaughan-Fowler name of the paternal family.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48Coming up, Diana's story proves an inspiration to the family member she's never met.
0:21:48 > 0:21:55The impression I'm getting is she was quite a strong woman which I find interesting and encouraging.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06Heir hunters solve thousands of cases a year and millions of pounds are paid out to rightful heirs.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10But a handful of cases have foxed the heir hunters and remain unsolved.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Could you be the beneficiaries they've been searching for?
0:22:14 > 0:22:22Could you be in line to inherit a lump sum worth hundreds, thousands or even millions of pounds?
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years and today we're focusing on three names.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30Are they relatives of yours?
0:22:31 > 0:22:36Winifred Dewar died in November 2000 in Newcastle upon Tyne.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38She was 75 years old.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42If no heirs are found, her money will go to the Government.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Did you know Alan John Inglis from Walworth in London?
0:22:48 > 0:22:51He died in December 2007.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56His family may originally have come from Galashiels on the Scottish Borders.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58But so far no relatives have been traced.
0:23:01 > 0:23:08Also on our list is Mary Ursula Franklen-Evans, who died in Fareham in Hampshire in July 2004.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Franklen-Evans is a very rare surname, which should make it easier to track down heirs.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17But so far, no-one has come forward to claim her estate.
0:23:17 > 0:23:24If the names Winifred Dewar, Alan John Inglis or Mary Ursula Franklen-Evans mean anything to you,
0:23:24 > 0:23:29or someone you know, an unexpected windfall could be coming your way.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43Heir hunters Fraser and Fraser are investigating the case of Edward Luckarift.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47He died in North Wales in March 2010 without leaving a will.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50He owned a property worth £80,000.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55But the team have also discovered that he may have had debts.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Neil has therefore taken a calculated risk in pursuing the case.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02If there's no money in the estate, the team will not get paid.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05But if the value of the property has remained intact,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10and not been eaten into by debts, it could be a fairly valuable estate.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14The team have been researching the mother's side of the family
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and have discovered an uncle, Edward Gresley Cox.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22He died in a flying accident in 1918 and he left a will.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27The team wondered whether he might have had a wife and children.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Amelie Denise Gresley Cox, widow.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32- Widow?- Yeah.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35But this turns out not to be the case.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41He's left a grant, letters of administration, probably to his mother.
0:24:41 > 0:24:48The fact he's left letters of administration to his mother rather implies he wasn't married.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50It's therefore some sense to imply he didn't have any children.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55Edward Gresley Cox is the only maternal uncle of Edward Luckarift.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00If he had no children, this means there are no heirs on the mother's side of the family.
0:25:00 > 0:25:06So the team's only remaining hope of finding an heir is to go back to the father's side.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10They've established that Edward's paternal aunt Evelyn had no children.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15So they must now try to find some records for Edward's paternal aunt Kathleen.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19We've only got one outstanding person to find - Kathleen -
0:25:19 > 0:25:23and at the moment we can't find anything for her at all.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27However we're starting to think that maybe she's died a spinster.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29The most likely scenario is that Kathleen has gone back to Jersey.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35Jersey is quite difficult for us to research, so we'll have to get someone there to do the research.
0:25:37 > 0:25:43Although most of Edward's family hailed from Jersey, he himself was born in Salford near Manchester.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48But he was a free spirit who never stayed in one place for long.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Harry Colecliffe only knew Edward during the last five years of his life.
0:25:52 > 0:25:58But in that time Edward regaled him with stories of an exciting career which took him across the Atlantic
0:25:58 > 0:26:02and brought him into contact with all sorts of interesting people.
0:26:02 > 0:26:09He started off as a journalist with the Royal Navy, that would have been 1944 to '45.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18In 1946 the Canadians were sent back to Canada after the war
0:26:18 > 0:26:22and what the Navy wanted was somebody to go with the troops,
0:26:22 > 0:26:30find out a little bit about them and write it in some form of newsletter to send back.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35He had to go from ship to ship and the only way they could do it was to string a line across,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39put him in a bosun's chair and swing him across.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42He said it was terrifying, but he did it.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47After he left the navy, Edward wanted to travel around America.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52So a chance meeting with a rather unusual person seemed like the answer to his prayers.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55He was a guy called Karl Wickman.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59He was the guy who owned Greyhound Buses
0:26:59 > 0:27:03and he offered Edward a job. He gave him a wad of money to start with
0:27:03 > 0:27:09without even giving him a job, sent him down to Fort Lauderdale,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13waited down there for him to come, finally turned up
0:27:13 > 0:27:17and said, "Right, here's your job, go around all of the Greyhound stations
0:27:17 > 0:27:24"and write a little piece on that station for the newsletter." And he did that for 12 months.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28With his wanderlust satisfied, Edward then returned to Britain.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34Having enjoyed his experience of writing in the US, he decided to continue along this career path,
0:27:34 > 0:27:39and he got a job writing radio plays for the BBC.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45He did show me files that he had that were all little plays he'd written
0:27:45 > 0:27:50and apparently they were actually used on radio at that time.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54Soon after this, he landed an extremely prestigious job
0:27:54 > 0:27:58as a writer on a cutting-edge new television series.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01# That was the week that was... #
0:28:01 > 0:28:07That Was The Week That Was was broadcast on the BBC in 1962 and 1963.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Why in fact has Mr Macmillan, the Prime Minister, retired?
0:28:12 > 0:28:17I've done two series on the trot and my agent says he doesn't want me to be typecast.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19# That was the week that was... #
0:28:19 > 0:28:26Edward was in the company of some great comedy writers, including John Cleese, Peter Cook and Eric Sykes.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31And the show was groundbreaking in the way it poked fun at the establishment.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35We pledge ourselves to ensure that pensioners continue to share
0:28:35 > 0:28:38in the good things that a steadily expanding economy will bring.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41A million pensioners a week will have to undergo
0:28:41 > 0:28:45the means test of national assistance in order to avoid starvation.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50They're not laughing back in the office
0:28:50 > 0:28:54where the search for heirs is becoming increasingly frustrating.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58They've established that there are no heirs on the mother's side of the family,
0:28:58 > 0:29:02as Edward's only maternal uncle died without having any children.
0:29:02 > 0:29:08On the father's side, they've ruled out Edward's Aunt Evelyn, who also had no offspring.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11So it looks like it's probably a dead stem.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16So their only remaining hope of finding an heir is through Edward's Aunt Kathleen.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19If she has had children, they would be first cousins
0:29:19 > 0:29:23of Edward's and possible beneficiaries to his estate.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26But Neil has taken a huge risk on this case.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31A bankruptcy notice that he discovered rang alarm bells early on.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35But Neil believes that Edward owned his £80,000 property,
0:29:35 > 0:29:40and if its value has remained intact, there could still be money in the estate.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Take a seat, sit down and read this.
0:29:43 > 0:29:50It's early afternoon, and the team have finally found a record for Edward's paternal aunt, Kathleen.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55This was one last stem which... we haven't been able to find a marriage for, but we think
0:29:55 > 0:29:59we've found a death for, and if that death is right, then there's probably children off that.
0:29:59 > 0:30:06But Neil has also just discovered the true value of the estate, and it's not looking good.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10We think the property is worth £80,000 and we've been informed
0:30:10 > 0:30:16that there are debts in the estate exceeding the £80,000.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19So it is probably going to be an insolvent estate.
0:30:19 > 0:30:26This was the last thing they wanted to hear, especially when they were so close to tracking down heirs.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Neil took a gamble in pursuing this case.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33And he now has no choice but to pull the plug.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39Sometimes the feelings we get and our ideas are proved totally wrong.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41Luckarift has been one of those cases.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44We looked at it, because we thought it was going to be quite easy.
0:30:44 > 0:30:50Then we found the reference to the deceased being a director of a company.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55As inquiries have come in, sometimes values on estates can go up and up and up.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Other times, they go down and down and lead to nothing.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04This is one of those cases, so it is a bit of a no-hoper for us.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Luckily we found out early enough where it hasn't cost us too much.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12Edward Luckarift was a man who lived for the moment,
0:31:12 > 0:31:16and it's perhaps not surprising that he didn't leave any money.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20If you even went to his house, the one thing he wasn't was materialistic.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26It didn't really bother him at all that he didn't have a lot of material things.
0:31:26 > 0:31:32He spent the last years of his life looking after his beloved dog, and playing and watching cricket.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39He loved his cricket. He travelled down to Lord's, watched the cricket down there.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41Played up here in Wales.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47In his house at this moment is still his cricket gear in a cricket bag down in the cellar.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52I think, if there's anything I would remember him by, it was his contentment.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56He had his dog, he had his cricket
0:31:56 > 0:31:58and he had his memories and his writing.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02As long as he had what he had,
0:32:02 > 0:32:03that was enough.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05I think, well,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08you know, you can't beat that as a lesson in life, really.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25In April 2010, the heir hunters were investigating the estate of Diana Paine.
0:32:25 > 0:32:31She died near Tunbridge Wells, leaving an estate worth £20,000.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34Heir hunter Dave Slee had established that she had
0:32:34 > 0:32:39no children, and no surviving siblings or nieces and nephews.
0:32:39 > 0:32:45So the search was on for aunts, uncles and cousins, who could be heirs to Diana's estate.
0:32:45 > 0:32:51On the father's side, the team had an easy name to work with, Vaughan-Fowler.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54There weren't many hyphenated Vaughan-Fowlers in the UK,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57so Dave was quickly able to pinpoint the family.
0:32:57 > 0:33:04I found her father's birth and I was able to establish that he had two siblings, he had two siblings,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08one died a bachelor and one was married and had descendants,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12so eventually we were able to locate eight paternal beneficiaries
0:33:12 > 0:33:15who would be entitled in the estate.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18So far, research had been exceptionally speedy.
0:33:18 > 0:33:24Dave would now write to these beneficiaries to determine their exact entitlement to Diana's estate.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27But the search wasn't over yet.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30In fact, the hard graft was only just beginning.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Dave now had to turn his attention to the mother's side of the family.
0:33:34 > 0:33:40The maternal family... I knew it would be a lot harder because the surname was Potter.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44There are thousands of people with the surname Potter in Britain, so Dave had his work cut out.
0:33:44 > 0:33:51But after hours of painstaking research, he was finally able to find a record for Diana's mother.
0:33:51 > 0:33:58I located the birth of the deceased mother, Mabel Potter, in Brighton, and she was the daughter
0:33:58 > 0:34:04of the unusually named Harding Potter, and her mother was Maria, formerly Bryant.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09The next stage was to see if Diana's mother had any siblings.
0:34:09 > 0:34:16Reviewing the census returns, we were able to establish that Harding Potter and Maria Bryant
0:34:16 > 0:34:19had six children including the deceased's mother.
0:34:19 > 0:34:26Diana's maternal grandparents, Harding Potter and Maria Bryant, married in 1862 in London.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31They had six children - Ada, Elizabeth, Kate, Florence,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Ethel and Mabel, Diana's mother.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36If any of Diana's five aunts had children,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39they would be first cousins of Diana's.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43And if any of them were still alive, they could be heirs to her estate.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46The pressure was now on Dave to track them down.
0:34:47 > 0:34:53When the Second World War ended, Diana settled into married life with her husband, Harry.
0:34:53 > 0:34:59But the pioneering spirit she'd shown in her work for the National Fire Service hadn't diminished.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03At a time when most women were content to be stay-at-home wives and mothers,
0:35:03 > 0:35:08Diana took her first step towards becoming a successful business woman.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13She decided that she was going to take over the reins
0:35:13 > 0:35:15and she bought this shop in Battle.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18The shop was a women's clothing boutique,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22and Diana threw herself into the running of the place with gusto.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25She proceeded to smarten the place up
0:35:25 > 0:35:28and bring it up to date.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31For 25 years, she ran this shop in Battle.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35She went on to open two more branches in nearby towns
0:35:35 > 0:35:40and she even ran fashion shows two or three times a year.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45She got all her own staff and one or two other ladies
0:35:45 > 0:35:48to make a fashion show and she did very well.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54The show was run for one reason only and that was for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.
0:35:54 > 0:36:00Diana was tireless in her work for charity, and her clothing business became a great success.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03But she was also still caring for her husband, Harry.
0:36:03 > 0:36:10He had been injured during the war, and his condition deteriorated as time went on.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14When her husband started to get really ill, she gave up the shops,
0:36:14 > 0:36:22and they came to live at Speldhurst and they lived in Speldhurst for quite a few years,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25until her husband died.
0:36:25 > 0:36:32Diana had looked after Harry for nearly 40 years, and when he died, she was all alone.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36She never spoke of her family and believed she had none.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39But as Dave Slee was about to discover,
0:36:39 > 0:36:45she did actually have a whole set of relatives not a million miles away.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Dave had established that Diana's mother had five sisters
0:36:49 > 0:36:52and he was trying to find out whether they'd had children.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56He was able to discount two of the sisters straightaway.
0:36:56 > 0:37:02Two maternal aunts, Ada and Elizabeth... we established both died as minors.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07But Kate, Florence and Ethel had all married and had children.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12If these children were still alive, they would be first cousins of Diana's and heirs to her estate.
0:37:12 > 0:37:17However, it soon became apparent that most of these cousins were born
0:37:17 > 0:37:20around the turn of the century and had already passed away.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22All except one.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26The first maternal where we were able to locate
0:37:26 > 0:37:31was a son of Ethel Potter.
0:37:31 > 0:37:37She married a Mr Pearson, and her son, Bernard, was in fact the only first cousin
0:37:37 > 0:37:39who'd survived the deceased.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46Dave wrote to Bernard, who signed an agreement with the company.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51Finally, the team had their first maternal heir.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53OK, let's recap.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Having established that Diana's other cousins were no longer alive,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00Dave's next task was to look for their descendants.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05Diana's Aunt Kate had had three children - Mabel, Kate and Gladys.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09I knew that the deceased's cousin Mabel, who was born in 1898,
0:38:09 > 0:38:14was likely to be deceased, so I firstly looked for her marriage,
0:38:14 > 0:38:20and she married a Walter Wyatt, and then I undertook the search to see if she had any children.
0:38:20 > 0:38:26Mabel's marriage to Mr Wyatt... we established that there were three children born to that marriage -
0:38:26 > 0:38:28two females and one male.
0:38:28 > 0:38:34Dave discovered that the son had passed away, so he wrote to the two daughters.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38I informed them that they would be entitled in the estate, and they informed me
0:38:38 > 0:38:41that their brother married and he had children,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43who are cousins twice removed to the deceased.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49Diana's cousin Mabel had three children - two daughters and a son, Walter.
0:38:49 > 0:38:55Walter had passed away in 2003, but Dave discovered that he had four children.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59He managed to find an address for the daughter, Elizabeth,
0:38:59 > 0:39:00and he wrote to her.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03His letter came as a big surprise.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08When I first got the letter from Frasers, I think it was back in May,
0:39:08 > 0:39:09I was quite surprised.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13It just mentions that you may be the heir to someone who's died,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and you have no idea who it might be.
0:39:16 > 0:39:22But Liz and her brothers were curious to find out more, so they wrote back to the company.
0:39:22 > 0:39:28You're asked for lots of details about other family members - names, addresses, dates of birth.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31I think it was as a result of sending that in
0:39:31 > 0:39:37I got a letter back saying... regards the estate of Diana Ferelyth Paine.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40Liz had never heard of Diana.
0:39:40 > 0:39:46She was the cousin of Liz's grandmother, so two generations removed from Liz herself.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49But she was fascinated to hear about this distant relative.
0:39:49 > 0:39:56The impression I am getting is she was quite a strong woman, which I find interesting and encouraging.
0:39:56 > 0:40:02I have heard that she was a driver for the fire brigade or something like that during the war.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06I've heard she had businesses.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09It is fascinating to find out little bits about Diana.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12Someone that happens to be related to you but you've never met.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Liz and her brothers signed with the company, who, in return for an agreed percentage,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20would help them claim their share of Diana's estate.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25Receiving money from someone she didn't know was a strange experience for Liz.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28One of my daughters did mention this is a bit weird, you know -
0:40:28 > 0:40:32why should you get money from someone you've never known in their lifetime?
0:40:32 > 0:40:36And I suppose that does seem very strange, in a way.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41But the opportunity to find out more about her family was priceless.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45I've been thinking a lot about why I haven't heard about Diana.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49I can't remember ever asking my dad, which I'm regretting now and thinking
0:40:49 > 0:40:52maybe he never shared it, maybe he never knew it.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55I think the whole experience has been fascinating,
0:40:55 > 0:41:00and it is very interesting to find out more and more about your family.
0:41:00 > 0:41:07The team had invested many hours in this case and they had finally tracked down all the heirs.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10On the maternal family, I was able to establish
0:41:10 > 0:41:15that there was one cousin, unfortunately now deceased, entitled,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19and there are nine other cousins once removed or twice removed.
0:41:19 > 0:41:27So our research has now concluded that there are 18 heirs entitled to share in Diana's estate.
0:41:27 > 0:41:32The final value of the estate was confirmed to be £20,000.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34This would be shared between ten heirs on the mother's side
0:41:34 > 0:41:38of the family and eight heirs on the father's side.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42From our point of view, the research went very well.
0:41:42 > 0:41:49It was nice to be able to find the heirs quickly for the solicitor's point of view.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52A nice tidy estate for us to research.
0:41:52 > 0:41:58Although she never got to know her extended family, Diana wasn't lonely in later life.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02She was lucky enough to find love third time around with Ernest.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07And they travelled the country together, providing friendship and companionship for one another.
0:42:07 > 0:42:14I was only looking for somebody who may have had the same outlook in life and looking
0:42:14 > 0:42:19forward to a little bit of enjoyment in the last years of our lives.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24I wasn't expecting to hit the nail on the head first time round.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28But I was very lucky in finding Diana.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32It was just we enjoyed being with each other all the time
0:42:32 > 0:42:39and we didn't have to think about, what about a round-the-world cruise? That didn't come into it at all.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43We didn't have to have very expensive things to enjoy life together.
0:42:49 > 0:42:55If you would like advice about building your family tree or making a will, go to bbc.co.uk.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd