Cornish/Nearne Heir Hunters

Welcome to Heir Hunters, where the search for relatives of people who've died

without leaving a will can uncover family secrets and provide insights into our nation's history.

'Today, the heir hunters are in the East End of London...

'searching for beneficiaries

'to an estate that's lain unclaimed for almost a decade.

'Somewhere out there are some long-lost relatives

'who have no idea they're in line for a windfall.

'Could the Heir Hunters be knocking at your door?'

-Coming up on today's programme...

-Is anyone else not doing very much?

'Neil feels the pressure as he goes out on a limb.'

It's a big gamble. If it pays off, we'll all be heroes.

If it doesn't...then, unfortunately, I have to pay for certificates we may not need.

'And the death of a reclusive woman in Torquay

'uncovers an incredible story of courage against the tyranny of Nazi Germany.'

They all were willing to take the risk.

It was a very great risk,

cos if they could be captured by the enemy,

goodness knows what would happen.

'And I'll be immersing myself in the clandestine world

'of British wartime espionage...

'looking for the first time

'at only recently released top-secret documents.'

"They put me in a cold bath at Gestapo headquarters

"and they tried to make me speak. But I stuck to my story."

Plus, how YOU may be entitled

to inherit an unclaimed estate held by the treasury.

Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?

Every year in the UK,

an estimated 300,000 people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found, then any money left behind

will go to the Government.

Last year, they made £14 million from unclaimed estates.

That's where the heir hunters come in.

They make it their business to track down missing relatives

and help them claim their rightful inheritance.

At the end of the day, the money does go to the rightful people and not to the Government.

In our first case today,

the team are trying to find the relatives of a man who died

in East London, back in 2004.

'It's seven in the morning at the offices of heir hunters Fraser & Fraser...

'and the Treasury has just released its weekly list of unclaimed estates.

'If someone dies without leaving a will,

'with no known next of kin,

'and their estate is worth £5,000 or more,

'then it will appear on this list.

'Today, the team's first job is to see if they can identify the estates

'that are worth the most.

'Out of several possibilities, one case in particular

'has caught boss Neil's eye...

'but it's a bit of a risky proposition.'

I think I'm going to take a bit of a gamble today.

I'm going to work a case with Albert William Charles Cornish.

The unusual thing about this case is that Albert died in 2004...

but his estate has only just appeared on the Treasury's list.

This could mean that he had a small shareholding of around

£5,000 that has only just come to light.

But Neil is banking on this case being worth a lot more.

He has discovered that, after his death,

Albert's house was sold for over £300,000.

My gamble is either... £300,000 estate...

or maybe £5,000.

I hope it's up near the 350, otherwise the gamble's really failed.

The value of estates is really important

to the heir hunters, because they work on commission,

earning a percentage of the amount that's claimed by each heir they sign.

As the boss, it's Neil's job to identify the high-value cases,

so the whole team is relying on his judgement.

Albert Cornish died, aged 79, on the 18th of February, 2004,

in Hackney, East London.

He left no will and not even a photograph survives of him.

But his neighbour Ted Sawyer remembers him vividly.

Albert had a face a little bit like an owl.

He had a round face,

and a small nose, and big, round eyes.

Albert had lived in this house all his life.

His parents had died there, as had his brother, Ronald.

And in his later years, Albert lived there alone with his cat.

He was well known to everyone in the neighbourhood.

He would be cutting the hedge, he'd be tinkering with his car.

He used to sit in the car and read the newspaper, actually.

He was a little old man

but he looked like he really owned his bit of the street.

Albert was very much part of the local community...

even towards the end, when he became very deaf.

If you had to go to the house and try and get him to the door,

you virtually had to knock the house down.

It was a great, big cast-iron Victorian knocker...

and you had to hammer and hammer.

Albert lived his whole life in this corner of East London...

and eventually passed away in the same house he'd been born in.

There's a wonderful sense of satisfaction,

to know that he did manage to live out his life here.

He passed away peacefully at home.

Albert was a straightforward, simple human being

that was very, very rooted in this place.

Albert was clearly a Londoner, born and bred.

But the question Neil needs to answer is,

did he ever actually own the family home in Hackney?

If he didn't...

then his estate is probably only worth £5,000...

and Neil knows they couldn't make enough profit from an estate that size

to even cover the basic costs of an investigation.

Neil needs to find out as soon as possible

if this case will be worth his while...

D'you want to go over to Hackney, mate, E5?

..So he sends someone over to the property

to see what they can uncover.

I'm not entirely sure about the address, so try doing an enquiry there.

Heir-hunting relies heavily on research done in the office...

but it's the senior researchers on the road, like Ewart Lindsay,

who are the public face of the company.

They're based all over the country

and it's their job to follow up any lead...

I think you're probably expecting me.

..and make sure they get to the heirs ahead of the competition.

On cases like this, often the best place to start

is with the neighbours.

They can supply vital information about the deceased.

The gentleman who died back in 2004. I don't know if you were here at that time?

-No, I've only been here five years.

-Five.. OK, thank you. Cheers.

But this morning, the only neighbour he gets to speak to

is a relative newcomer to the street and never knew Albert.

It was a long shot anyway...

really, somebody living there since 2004 and before, you know?

It's a frustrating start for Ewart.

He hasn't managed to find out anything about Albert and his family,

not to mention whether he owned his house or not.

Back in the office, and it's a busy morning with everyone working hard

on various cases.

Tony...?

Neil's managed to recruit case manager Tony Pledger to help him,

but he can't afford to divert anyone else away from

more obviously lucrative investigations.

This marriage is right, I know that.

Straightaway, it looks like they've stumbled across a real find.

I've got Percy on here. I've got Rich, Ted and Ernest.

Someone has done some work on the Cornish family tree,

and posted it online.

If it's correct, it identifies a living heir in Australia.

But early enthusiasm soon turns to disappointment.

So this one here...

He's identified that... and it should be that...

as the real one.

That bit is wrong.

The online tree is riddled with mistakes.

The amateur genealogist has made some basic errors

in identifying some of the members of Albert's family.

So that means they've got to throw it all out and start again.

Professional heir-hunting is all about detail.

The only way to be sure is to go methodically back through each generation...

checking every birth, marriage and death certificate as you go.

Without buying the certificates, it's easy to make a mistake.

And in this situation, that's what they've done.

It's back to the drawing board for the two-man band...

and Neil's beginning to feel the pressure.

Is anyone else not doing very much?

But no-one comes forward...

so it's all down to Tony, who with the aid of the 1911 census,

starts to rebuild Albert's family tree from the ground up.

Albert's parents were William Cornish and Rhoda Robinson.

Albert also had a brother, Ronald, who died a bachelor in 1997.

Neil and Tony now know that there are now near kin on this case,

meaning children or surviving siblings of the deceased...

so the next step is to look for cousins.

Amy and Elizabeth Cornish.

They start with the paternal side of Albert's family.

By going back to an earlier census,

Tony has discovered that Albert's grandparents

were William Cornish and Clara Beetchenow.

Albert's father had three other siblings...

Amy, Percy and Clara.

The question is, did they have children?

The first job is to look for marriage certificates,

and for that, Tony needs Ewart's help.

What d'you want now, Tone?

The marriage of Amy E Cornish...

March, 1919, Hackney, I think.

-Okey-dokey.

-There's possibly three children off that...

Cheers. Bye!

Ewart heads of to the register office,

to track down the all-important certificates

that will prove they're on the right track...

but at £30 a pop, they don't come cheap.

Meanwhile, Neil and Tony

start searching for Albert's aunt, Army Cornish's children.

It turns out she had a total of six from her marriage to John Tayler.

In 1922 they had girl triplets...

but sadly, like nearly all multiple births at that time,

all three of the girls died in infancy.

A decade went by, and Amy went on to have three more children...

all of whom survived to adulthood.

If these Tayler children are still alive,

they would be Albert's first cousins,

and heirs to his estate.

Neil hopes the unusual spelling of the girls' surname

should count in his favour.

It's Tayler, but spelt slightly differently than normal. Instead of "-or" on the end, it's "-er".

So it's slightly easier to find.

However, I'm pulling my hair out, cos I haven't been able to find them.

I could do with a bit of assistance,

but it's not forthcoming.

Everyone is far too busy working

their own potentially high-earning investigations

to stop and help Neil on a case that could turn out to be worthless.

What I found was this.

But senior researcher Alan takes pity on him,

and steps into the breach.

I got three possible marriages for Dorothy I Tayler.

I concentrated on "Dorothy I" cos I thought it was a better combination.

That's what we thought as well.

The extra help makes a difference and, at last,

there's a breakthrough.

Alan's discovered that at least one of Albert's first cousins,

Dorothy, is still alive...

and what's more, he's found a current phone number for her.

This is their first chance to contact a bona-fide heir.

Tony goes to make the call.

I was hoping I could speak with you with regard to

your late mother, who I think was Amy Elizabeth, formerly Cornish.

But his high hopes are met with frustration.

There's no-one in, so all he can do is leave a message.

Thanks very much, bye.

Once again, this case seems to have stalled,

and Tony's feeling edgy.

There are now three of them working this case in the office,

as well as one of them on the road.

And with several certificates on order,

that's a lot of money that could be heading

down the drain.

We have no idea as to the value.

Because this house was sold,

we think their must be some value there,

but it's complete...wishful thinking on our part at the moment.

Coming up...

suddenly, it's all hands on deck,

as the case of Albert Cornish breaks wide open.

-Check that address out...

-He could still be alive, couldn't he?

But doubts over the value of the estate

still hang over the office... especially with Tony.

There's every possibility

that he might have been a long-term tenant...

and not in fact even owned the property

Next, a case of a secretive woman

who died alone without leaving a will.

Later, I'll be discovering her hidden life,

but first, here's how the story began.

Tragically, some people's amazing achievements

are never truly celebrated until after their death.

Some of the bravest and best

prefer to take their stories with them to the grave.

This was never more true than in the case of Eileen Nearne.

Eileen died on the 2nd of September, 2010, in Torquay.

She lived a solitary existence,

not really mixing with anyone in the town.

But she did regularly attend mass at her local Catholic church.

Sister Damian remembers her as an enigmatic figure.

Eileen always came about an hour before mass...

read the paper...

slipped up to the ladies' chapel.

She was a shadowy little figure,

going around the church.

My first encounter with Eileen was to ask her her name...

which she fobbed me off and said something to the effect of, "That's not important."

She didn't invite conversation.

She was a mysterious figure...

because you realised you were wondering, "Who is she?"

Eileen passed away in her flat on Lisburne Crescent.

At first, her death seemed like

one of hundreds that local councils manage every year.

Torbay Council duly went to her home to look for any clues to family members,

but what they found was much more intriguing.

In amongst Eileen's things

were old French currency, letters written in French,

and several medals, including an MBE.

Clearly, she had been someone very special...

but hadn't wanted anyone to know about it.

The press soon picked up on the story,

and reported that Eileen had died alone,

with no-one to pay for her funeral.

To David Milchard of Fraser & Fraser,

this was clearly a job for the heir hunters.

It just struck us as interesting.

There didn't appear to be any relatives...

and I decided to have a look at it.

The first thing David did was to set about identifying

Eileen's basic family tree.

We identified the birth of Eileen,

and it appeared her father was a John Nearne...

and her mother was Spanish.

David found a record for Eileen's parents...

showing that they were married in 1913

in Marylebone, in London.

He then went on to find birth records for three other children...

Francis, Jacqueline and Frederick.

Although all the children had been born in England,

it turned out the whole family moved to France for a bit,

and lived there between the wars.

In one fell swoop,

David had found out more about Eileen

than anyone in Torquay ever had.

She'd always made sure to keep people at arm's length...

even Sister Damian.

The first few times I took Eileen home...

she wouldn't let me

drop her outside her house.

Once, I said to her, "Eileen..."

Well, I didn't say "Eileen", because I didn't know her name...

I said, "I'm not dropping you here.

"It's too late at night, it's too dark."

She wouldn't even allow me to see where she actually lived.

It seems that Eileen was so intent on secrecy,

she even concealed her true nationality.

I assumed...

from her accent...

something about her was very French,

but she led me to believe she was half-French, half-English.

The fact that Eileen was able to pass herself off as French

turned out to be the key to the mystery surrounding her life.

This reserved woman, who guarded her identity so fiercely

and died surrounded by bravery medals,

was in fact a spy.

She had been a member of Churchill's Special Operations Executive,

the SOE - an elite group of men and women

who had worked undercover in France during the Second World War.

Squadron Leader Beryl Escott

was a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force

and has written a book,

The Heroines Of The SOE,

which features both Eileen and her sister Jacqueline.

The work of SOE was mainly

to...land agents...

to help

the French gather together

those who were willing to oppose the Germans...

and become the Resistance.

As fluent French speakers,

Eileen and her elder sister, Jacqueline,

were highly sought after for war work, and they both signed up.

They were very... patriotic, both of them.

Patriotic in respect of England,

patriotic in respect of France.

They were very annoyed that France had made

this peace treaty with the enemy.

All new recruits to the SOE

were sent on a rigorous training programme

to help them cope with the demands of the dangerous double life

they had volunteered for.

They also learned how to operate the tools of their trade,

the wireless transceivers

they would use to send and receive coded messages.

On a moonlit night in March, 1944,

just before her 23rd birthday,

Eileen was dropped into occupied France.

She made her way to Paris and found herself an apartment in Bourg-la-Reine.

From here, she was able to carry out her vital work,

right under the noses of the German army and secret police.

In 1943, you know,

it was considered that a wireless operator

would stay free for about...

six weeks.

But they all were willing to take the risk.

It was a very great risk, cos if they could be captured by the enemy,

goodness knows what would happen.

And Eileen was willing to take the risk.

Eileen had been given an alias, Jacqueline Duterte,

and a codename, Rose, which she used in her transmissions.

After the war, she appeared in a documentary about the SOE.

Speaking in French, and identifying herself only as "Rose",

she recounts a terrifying story of an experience on a Paris train.

TRANSLATOR: I had my portable transmitter with me,

and he asked me what I had in my suitcase.

I replied, "What? In my case?

"Oh, it's a gramophone."

"Oh, yes," he said, and I said to myself, "My God..."

I knew then that I had to get off straightaway

at the first opportunity,

He wouldn't stop looking at me.

So I got up and pretended I had reached my stop...

and quickly stepped off the train with my case.

And as I went past on the platform,

I could see him whispering to the other officers about me.

And I knew he was suspicious.

So I'd been right to get off,

as they'd have certainly asked to see inside the case...

which would have been dreadful, as they'd have seen the transmitter.

As war raged in Europe,

Eileen managed to evade capture for many months,

but one day she returned to her original apartment

to send an urgent message.

But just as she had finished,

the Gestapo burst in

and took her to their headquarters for interrogation.

TRANSLATOR: And they took me into a room where there was a bath,

and they held me under the water.

You suffocate under the water,

but you must stick to your story.

I remembered what we'd been taught.

Never to be afraid, never let them dominate you.

Amazingly, Eileen managed to convince the Germans

that she was a French girl sending messages for her wealthy industrialist boss.

They didn't shoot her,

but she was sent to the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp,

known simply as "women's hell".

It was a place where people were worked to death, one way or another.

Eileen was expected to sink or swim...

in this dreadful concentration camp,

and they were on such very, very low rations.

They were starving.

They were starving to death.

But, despite everything, Eileen refused to be beaten.

It's an amazing story of heroism in the face of the enemy.

I'm off to find out how undercover agents like Eileen

were chosen and trained.

'I've come to meet John Smith,

'an education officer from the Beaulieu SOE Museum.

'But how much light will he be able to shed on this most secret

'of British wartime organisations?'

Eileen was a spy working for the Special Operations Executive.

But who were the spymasters?

I suppose the ultimate spymaster was Winston Churchill.

It was his idea to form the Special Operations Executive.

He felt that the trouble the country was in, in 1939,

we couldn't rely on the Army, Navy and RAF alone...

we needed a force that would carry out acts of sabotage

and subversion behind enemy lines,

and so he came up with the idea of the SOE.

'The Special Operations Executive was officially formed

'on the 22nd of July, 1940,

'and its sole purpose was to commit acts of guerrilla warfare

'against Germany and its Second World War allies.

'Churchill ordered his newly formed secret service

'to "set Europe ablaze".

'All they needed was the manpower.'

So how were agents like Eileen recruited?

In a whole range of ways.

Some were approached,

and some actually approached, themselves.

Again, they came from the military, some of them...

they brought skills in explosives

and various other military activities.

There were people that came from military intelligence.

Some came from civvy street...

but the biggest problem SOE found

was few of them were able, initially,

to speak the local language of the country

they were going to be dropped into.

In occupied Europe,

Nazi forces were constantly on the lookout

for people at places like roadblocks

and road checks

and railway stations and bus stations and so on.

They would stop people, question them, ask for their papers...

and if these people couldn't speak the local language

and pass themselves off as a native, they would be extremely vulnerable and could be in great danger.

This is where Eileen Nearne was absolutely a godsend to them...

because she was fluent in French.

'But it takes a lot more to be a spy than just being able to speak a second language...

'and volunteers like Eileen had a long road ahead of them.'

How did the SOE make sure that people were up to this kind of work?

Well, they went through a number of psychological tests

and security tests, and so on.

The security tests they put them through

were to find out whether there were any skeletons in their cupboard.

If they had anything in their own working history

or private history,

anything in their family that would make them vulnerable as agents

if they were caught by the Gestapo.

The Gestapo were the highly feared secret police of Nazi Germany.

Their job was to investigate cases of treason and espionage

against the Nazi Party.

They were given carte blanche to do so by their government.

With such a powerful enemy organisation

operating across occupied Europe,

the SOE had to be sure their agents were made of stern stuff.

They also went through a certain amount of psychological training

to see if they could cope with the stresses and strains

of being a secret agent.

It is a very lonely life, and they didn't know who they could trust.

Obviously, they were going to face very dangerous situations?

They were, and they were told about it.

To the credit of SOE, the instructors would have told them

at various stages throughout the whole training programme...

what the likelihood of them actually coming back from a mission would be.

I've heard it said it was 50/50 whether they came back or not,

and they knew there was always a case they would fall into the hands of the Gestapo,

and the Gestapo, particularly in Gestapo headquarters in Paris,

had this regime of questioning and torture, questioning and torture,

questioning and torture.

Some actually broke under that regime,

and the ultimate get-out they had... every agent, before they left Britain

was given a small tablet,

called the L-pill for the "lethal tablet".

It was a dose of cyanide that,

if they felt they couldn't get through the questioning

or were likely to give away their organisation,

they could take this cyanide tablet and they would commit suicide.

So they knew this, they were prepared for this, they were equipped for this.

They knew it was dangerous.

But none of this fazed Eileen,

and she bravely became one of the thousands of women

who served their country as secret agents in the Second World War.

Coming up...even in captivity,

Eileen never gives up the fight.

It was snowing and it was ice.

The whole camp was suffering from typhoid...

but she was always looking for an opportunity to escape.

Heir hunters solve thousands of cases a year

and millions of pounds are paid out to rightful heirs,

but not every case can be cracked.

'The Treasury solicitor has a list of over 2,000

'unclaimed estates online...

'known as the Bona Vacantia.'

Procedure is that, initially, the case will come in.

We will make some enquiries ourselves

to see if we can trace relatives or a will.

If those initial enquiries

don't bring forth anything,

we will then advertise.

These unsolved cases could be worth anything from a few hundred pounds to millions,

and they're waiting to be claimed.

If someone thinks they're entitled to an estate we're dealing with,

they need to contact us.

They can do that direct or via an agent, it's entirely up to them.

we need to have a simple family tree

showing how they think they're related to the deceased person.

Based on that initial evidence,

the Bona Vacantia division will then make a decision

about the validity of a claim.

If they think it's strong,

they will ask for further documentation

proving your link to the deceased.

So here's some names from the unsolved list.

Could YOU be eligible to inherit a fortune?

Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years,

and today we're focusing on three names.

Are they relatives of yours?

Eric Vincent Bedward died in Peckham, London,

in October, 2000.

'Bedward is originally a Welsh name,

'but nowadays the highest concentration of Bedwards

'live in Staffordshire.'

Do YOU remember Eric?

Is there a Bedward in your family?

'Ivor Herbert Saddington died in Kettering in September, 2003.

'The name Saddington originates from a village in Leicestershire.'

Did you know Ivor?

Were you a friend or colleague of his, back in the day?

'Carmen Dura died on the 23rd of January, 2011

'in Acton, West London.

'The name Dura is Polish and means "a hollow in the landscape".'

Were YOU a neighbour of Carmen's?

If no heirs are found, her money will go to the Government.

'Here are those names one more time.

'Eric Bedward,

'Ivor Saddington

'and Carmen Dura.'

So if today's names are relatives of yours,

you COULD have a fortune coming your way.

'The heir hunters are investigating the case of Albert Cornish,

from Hackney...

and the team still need to confirm there is value in the estate.

'The office are frantically trying to cross all the T's

'and dot all the I's on Albert's case.

'He died back in 2004, aged 79.

'Partner Neil picked his name off the Treasury's list of unclaimed estates...

'taking a chance on Albert actually owning the house he'd lived in.

'This would mean his estate has the potential to be worth

'up to £350,000.'

I've got a gut feeling that he did,

or at one time, owned the property, because he lived in it such a long time.

His parents both passed away at the same address.

But Neil knows that if he's got it wrong,

he'll be paying for it.

It's a big gamble. If it pays off, we'll all be heroes. If it doesn't,

then unfortunately I have to put my hand in my pocket

and pay for certificates we may not need.

Albert was one of the last of a dying breed of old East Enders.

If I was to describe the way that

Albert might be remembered,

it would be as a representative

of a particular group of Londoners...

that lived in London

throughout the war years... and crossed the generations...

and made it through to our generation.

Albert was 14 when the Second World War broke out,

too young to go and fight.

So instead, he went to work in the local factory

on Homerton High Street.

These days, it's a carpet warehouse,

but back then,

it was the Oppenheimer Tobacco pipe factory.

It's thought that Albert was a bowl turner,

one of 30 or so skilled workers

who shaped the pipe bowls out of dense briarwood,

using a mechanical lathe.

The machines were not like today.

They were run from overhead shafting.

That is noisy.

His job would have been a hands-on job, because,

not like today when things are fed in automatically,

you had to, by hand, put it on...

and do it accurately, to the right speed.

Albert worked at the factory at the end of his street

for over 40 years,

until it closed down in 1981.

Times and fashions had changed,

and the demands for pipes had simply disappeared.

The golden era of pipes was before the last world war.

Everybody had a pipe and everybody smoked.

If you look at old pictures of people crossing Westminster Bridge...

you don't count the number of people smoking a pipe,

you count the number of men that AREN'T smoking.

It's just completely different.

But back in the office, the priority for the heir hunters

isn't Albert's job,

it's finding out whether he owned his house.

Case manager Tony Pledger isn't convinced.

The deceased died six years ago.

He was probably a bachelor. He was born in the house that he died in.

His parents lived in the house for even longer.

There's every possibility he might have been a long-term tenant...

and not in fact even owned the property.

There may be uncertainty surrounding the value of the case,

but an experienced heir hunter like Tony doesn't let that get in the way

of a thorough investigation.... and his persistence has just been rewarded.

South Ockendon, OK?

Earlier, he left a message for Dorothy Tayler,

Albert's first cousin on his father's side.

She's just called him back, and has given him addresses

for herself and her sister, who both live in Essex.

Time now to call in Dave Hadley,

another of the company's senior researchers on the road.

We've got two people, sisters, both living in South Ockendon.

-Yep.

-I left a message with one of them,

-but if you make your way over there, I'll give you a bell.

-All right, bye-bye.

This is good news.

They could be on their way to signing their first heirs.

Neil's optimistic.

Dave Hadley's now heading over there,

so he's probably half an hour, maybe an hour away.

In that sort of time, we'll hopefully get to speak to someone.

Fingers crossed, he's right.

Despite all the uncertainty,

Neil's determined to wrap up this case,

and for that, he needs to track down any heirs

on Albert's mother's side of the family...

so he calls on Alan and Debbie to scour the censuses

and help him establish the maternal family tree.

We've got to find that marriage,

but Edward William Robinson...

We need to find that so we can do a search after '11.

Albert's mother was Rhoda Robinson,

Her parents were Edward and Rose.

A little more research reveals she had two brothers -

Edward and Albert.

Who's got Albert Edward Robinson's probate?

I've just phoned that through.

It goes to her son, John Edwin Robinson.

I'll just find his birth.

Neil has ordered a copy of Albert's uncle's will.

Wills are a good source of information for the heir hunters,

especially when it comes to identifying children.

And this one has led them to another of Albert's first cousins.

Did you say you'd checked that address out for him?

Nobody else is mentioned with that surname.

He could still be alive, couldn't he?

-I just got it that second.

-John E Robinson.

Finding an initial for a second name may not seem like much,

but for the heir hunters, it's huge.

As names go, John Robinson is almost as common as John Smith.

But with the extra initial "E",

Neil can significantly narrow the search.

Even so, he's still got a big job on his hands.

I think there's about 900 of them to look at.

Meanwhile, Dave Hadley has finally arrived in Essex,

hoping to meet Albert's first cousins on his father's side.

They are potential first heirs on this case,

After a day that's been dogged with false starts and uncertainty...

Hello?

..this would be an important boost for the whole team.

-Are you Mrs Dorothy Darby?

-Yes.

My name's David Hadley.

First stop is elder sister Dorothy's house.

I've got me sister in here.

That's all right. If you don't mind her being there, I don't mind

her being there.

This is an unexpected bonus for Dave.

He gets to talk to both sisters at the same time.

Basically, what's happened is that

-a cousin of yours...

-I know who he is.

-Who is it?

-Alan.

No.

-Vera?

-No.

-Patsy?

-No.

The sisters seem to be running through every family member

they can think of...

-Hilda?

-No.

..with no success.

So Dave gives them a clue.

It's a he.

-It's a he, it's a male?

-It's a male. BOTH: A male?

Yeah, a male cousin.

Albert?

-A dead cousin named Albert.

-Yes, Albert.

And he's left a little bit of money.

And because he didn't make a will...

Yeah?

-..whatever is left has to get passed to his blood relatives.

-Oh, I see.

And you're a cousin, so you'll be entitled to a share of the estate,

as will you.

Having explained the full procedure to them,

Dorothy and Margaret are happy to sign with the company...

who in return for a commission,

will help them make their claim to the Treasury.

Dave heads off, leaving the sisters to contemplate what they might do with their unexpected windfall.

If I won the money, I'd like to have me three-piece re-covered...

..because I don't like the colour of it.

It don't go with me carpet!

Back at the office,

and the maternal side of this case has suddenly all fallen into place.

You got an address for...?

Spinster.

They've discovered that Albert's other Uncle Edward

was married in 1930, in Hackney, to Ada Rich.

They had one daughter, Jean,

who would be Albert's first cousin.

Neil is delighted.

The mother, Rhoda, born in 1897.

We found her on the 1901 census and the 1911 census.

That, again, has given us

the full extent on the maternal side of the family.

Had to make sure there's no births AFTER the census,

but everything else looks fine,

so all the time, we've been able to be fairly confident

we have the full extent of the family, just because of the census.

Tony calls Dave Hadley straightaway with this new information.

She's living in Bishop's Stortford.

Will you try that one on your way home?

OK.

And there's more good news.

-And yours is due in quarter, yeah?

-It's live in '74 at that address.

1974, is it?

The team have finally sifted through

the 900 or so John E Robinsons

and they think they've found the right one...

which means another call to Ewart.

There's an up-to-date address for him in Dagenham.

So I'm off to see him.

Meanwhile, Dave has arrived in Bishop's Stortford

and is chatting with Jean,

who it turns out knew her cousin Albert well.

The two of them kept in touch,

right up to the end of his life.

The last time I saw him,

I moved here in January, 2001...

-and I saw him just before I moved here.

-Right.

He wrote a little letter to me, saying that...

I didn't really expect him to come down here,

cos he was very frail then,

-"I haven't been able to come and see you," you know?

-Yeah.

Jean is also a good source of information about the rest of the family

and is able to confirm a lot of the company's research.

You say it was John was the son?

-Yeah.

-John Robinson.

I haven't seen him since about...

in the '70s, about '72, something like that.

-He was working on the Redbridge Borough.

-Right, OK.

But he left there, went somewhere else, and we never heard of him.

What's the postcode here?

After listening to what Dave has to say,

Jean agrees to the company's terms and signs up.

But that's not all.

Dave still needs to ask the all-important question.

He knows that an entire day's work for the company

is resting on the answer.

Did he live in his own house, was it his own place?

No, it was rented. His mother and father - in fact, MY father

used to live there years ago. That shows you how long they lived there.

The mystery is finally solved.

The house that Albert's family lived in for almost a century,

the only home he ever knew,

never actually belonged to him.

It's a crushing blow to Neil.

Throughout the investigation, he's clung to his belief

that the estate would have benefited from the sale of the property.

But it turns out he was wrong.

In the end, it's one of those gambles.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

The research on this has gone quite well...

but unfortunately, as the firm goes,

we're not going to make any money.

In total, they found six heirs to Albert Cornish's estate.

Most of them were first cousins,

including John E Robinson,

who Ewart eventually tracked down in Dagenham.

-Hello!

-Hello, how are you?

-Can I speak to Mr Robinson, please?

-Yes, I'm Mr Robinson.

-John Robinson?

-Yes.

-Ah, lovely.

After the Treasury processed the claims

made by Albert's heirs on his estate,

they revealed he had left a total of £6,700,

which was then shared amongst them.

Not exactly a fortune,

but certainly something to remember him by.

Albert's passing marked the end of an era.

The house in Hackney is still there,

but the street will never be the same again.

Here's some more names of unclaimed estates from the Treasury Solicitor's list.

Could YOU be entitled to a forgotten fortune?

The Government list of over 2,000 unclaimed estates

is money that is owed to members of the public.

The list goes back to 1997,

because that's when our case management system came online.

The idea is to produce a list of all those solvent cases,

so there should at least be a few pounds in there,

possibly many thousands.

And the Bona Vacantia team's mission is a simple one.

Try your hardest to find the rightful heirs to an estate.

My division isn't allowed to make a profit.

We don't make commission, or get huge bonuses for passing lots of money to the Treasury.

The Treasury's more interested in "are we finding more kin?",

which we are. And "are we good value for taxpayers' money?", which we are.

'Let's see if we can find someone's long-lost heirs.'

Do these names mean anything to you?

Are they relatives of yours?

'Henry William Plummer Howe died in Boston, Lincolnshire,

'way back in May, 1985.

'The surname Howe has roots in both Norfolk

'and West Yorkshire.'

Perhaps Henry's second middle name, Plummer,

was his mother's maiden name.

Can YOU help solve this case?

'Richard Charles Olney died in Dartford, Kent,

'on the 23rd of October, 2000.

'The name Olney originates from areas of Northamptonshire

'and Buckinghamshire.'

Richard left no will, and so far,

all efforts to trace entitled family members

have failed.

Are YOU Richard's heir?

'Lydia Louise Fitzpatrick

'died in Chelsea & Westminster Hospital

'on the 29th of June, 2005.'

I've got Lydia's death certificate here,

which shows more information about her.

It says she worked as a local government officer.

Perhaps you were a colleague of hers back in the day?

The death certificate also reveals

Lydia's date and place of birth.

It shows she was born on the 24th of December, 1934,

in Guyana.

At the time of Lydia's birth, Guyana was under British rule.

Was she from a colonial family?

'Has any of this jogged YOUR memory?

'Are YOU related to Lydia?

'Remember, you're the person who has to prove the link.'

If people put together their cases very well,

they get their family tree and all the certificates to fill in,

such as birth, death and marriage, and maybe anything to do with adoption...

send that in, and it's dealt with by someone who

is an expert in their field,

and will be able to see whether the claim is made out or not.

'A reminder of those names again.

'Henry Howe,

'Richard Olney

'and Lydia Fitzpatrick.'

If today's names are relatives of yours,

you could have a windfall coming your way.

'We now return to the incredible story of Eileen Nearne...

'a wartime spy for the Special Operations Executive.'

Their efforts had shortened the war in Europe by nine months.

'Later, I'll be uncovering top-secret files

'about her life.'

"They put me in a cold bath at Gestapo headquarters

"and they tried to make me speak.

"but I stuck to my story."

'Eileen may not have left a will,

'but she did leave behind a treasure trove of wartime correspondence...

'that showed she'd worked as a special agent.

'Thanks to the press and media interest,

'the whole nation was gripped by this brave woman,

'who, as a World War II spy,

'had faced incredible danger and hardship

'while working undercover in occupied France.

'Eileen had been captured by the Germans,

'and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp,

'where by sheer force of will,

'she survived.'

It was snowing and it was ice.

The whole camp was suffering from typhoid...

but she was always looking for an opportunity to escape.

Finally, in 1945,

after 10 months of captivity,

Eileen saw her chance.

They were being marched through the night to another camp,

ahead of the advancing allies.

As they passed through a forest, Eileen broke rank

and fled.

It was an audacious move

and she must have known she was risking her life.

Eventually, she managed to make contact with the British Army,

who arranged for her to be brought back to England.

Her war was over,

but her contribution would never be forgotten.

"General Eisenhower

"was impressed by the support of the Resistance in France...

"and he considered that their efforts

"had shortened the war in Europe

"by nine months"!

That's a terrific claim to make.

So they had been very useful.

For David Milchard, getting the opportunity

to investigate such a fascinating and unique life story

was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It was quite amazing to think that she was captured at least three times...

and made some escapes.

She must have been very clever

and very resourceful, I would have thought.

But David knew that a high-profile case like this

would have attracted many of the other heir-hunting companies,

and he was STILL no closer to finding a living heir to Eileen's estate.

He did know that Eileen had two brothers and a sister,

but the question was, did THEY have any children?

The first one he looked into was Jacqueline.

She also joined the SOE.

She, too, spent a lot of time in France.

She never married and she died in the 1980s,

without any children.

But it seems the sisters were not the only heroes in this extraordinary family.

Their older brother, Francis, had also worked for the intelligence services.

He had a son, Eileen's nephew,

but tragically, he was killed at the beginning of the war,

fighting in France.

That left only one brother, Frederick, David's last hope.

Frederick had been in the Air Force during the war and survived.

He then went on to marry and had a daughter, Eileen's niece,

who was still alive and was traced to Tuscany.

So, it appears that the niece living in Italy is the only claimant.

In the end, the company made contact with the niece

and they put her in contact with the council

dealing with her aunt's estate.

Unfortunately, Frasers didn't make any money on this one.

The niece decided to process it herself,

but from an interest point of view,

it was very good for... It makes quite a change

to a normal case, so it was very enjoyable to do, really.

It was later revealed that Eileen's estate had been worth £13,000.

Not a lot for a fully paid-up war hero.

But money isn't everything,

as Eileen's contribution to the war effort is priceless.

And it's a contribution I'm about to discover even more about.

It turns out there's yet another twist in the tail.

A classified file on Eileen has just been released

from the government's top secret archives,

and I'm about to find out what's in it.

I understand this record has only just been released.

Why has it been classified information for so long?

Many of the military documents obviously come under

the Official Secrets Act, or they protect people's identity

who've been in military situations in wartime and during peacetime.

And people's identity very often has to be protected.

The documents about Eileen Nearne were kept as secret

as long as she was alive,

and once she died they were able to release them.

Although, even now, some of the documents in her file

will remain as secret documents until 2022,

because, obviously, there are people named that are still alive

or may be alive until that time.

So what's in it, what does it tell us about Eileen?

It's a fabulous collection of documents,

and one that really amuses me

is what is entitled The Finishing Report.

This was the report that was written about her

when she completed her months and months of training,

and it was the assessment of the Commandant

at Special Training School Number 34 -

that was the finishing school at Beaulieu -

one Major John Wedgwood.

Now, Wedgwood was one of the three brothers who ran the world famous pottery company,

but he wrote of Eileen Nearne,

"She is not very intelligent or practical,

"and is lacking in shrewdness and cunning.

"She has a bad memory, is inaccurate and scatterbrained.

"She seems keen,

"but her work was handicapped by a lack of power to concentrate.

"In character, she is very feminine and immature.

"She seems to lack all experience of the world,

"and would probably be easily influenced by others.

"It is doubtful whether this student is suitable for employment

"in any capacity on account of her lack of experience."

Two months later,

she was serving the SOE behind enemy lines in France.

That's amazing.

Well, it just goes to show how wrong your superiors can get it.

Another document reveals in Eileen's own words

her memories of capture by the Germans.

It reveals a lot about her amazing strength of character.

She explains how the Germans came to the house,

how they virtually broke the door down, banged on the door,

came in and caught her with the radio and the one-time pad,

which she used to write the codes on.

And then, she said, "They asked me what organisation I worked for.

"I said I'd joined in France

"and that I met my chief in a coffee shop, and he engaged me there.

"They asked me if I had any other friends working with me.

"I made up addresses of people.

"And they put me in a cold bath at Gestapo headquarters

"and they tried to make me speak, but I stuck to my story."

As we know, Eileen went on to escape from a German concentration camp,

and eventually made it home to England.

But this secret document shows for the first time it wasn't that easy.

It was Eileen and two French women, escaped under cover of darkness.

They hid in a house that had been bombed for two nights,

and eventually found themselves in a town where there was a Catholic church.

And the priest hid them in the bell tower,

and there they stayed for three days until,

looking down from the bell tower, they noticed white flags flying,

and they realised the town had surrendered.

The reason that the town had surrendered was because

the American troops were advancing and driving the Germans out of the town.

And so Eileen Nearne went down and introduced herself to the Americans.

But, unfortunately, Eileen's ordeal wasn't over.

The Americans didn't believe her story of being an undercover British agent.

They locked her up, they put her in prison, and she was in prison

with a lot of women that were either Nazis or Nazi sympathisers.

Eventually, the report was filed

and it was passed on then to the British authorities,

and the Army found out about her,

and she was repatriated back to England in May, 1945.

-And, in the end, Eileen got the recognition she deserved.

-She did.

She was awarded the MBE by this country,

and the French awarded her a Croix de Guerre with a bronze palm,

and that is a decoration that they give to foreign forces

who actually help the French in times of war.

So, two significant decorations for her efforts.

Amazing, such a far cry from the original report that we read.

It is indeed.

The release of these secret archives has shed yet more light

on Eileen's mysterious life as a spy.

It shows that, despite her superior's

initial misgivings about her abilities,

when your back's against the wall, people are capable

of the most amazing feats of intelligence and courage.

The British and French governments were not the only ones

to recognise this in Eileen.

Following her death, there was an outpouring of gratitude and respect.

Torbay Council erected a blue plaque in her honour,

and local people came together to celebrate the life

and achievements of this extraordinary woman.

This is a very special lady we're celebrating today.

And believe me, it's some amazing story.

APPLAUSE

For somebody of my sort of age, 37, to actually

only read about the war in history books,

it sort of brings it alive to know that

there was somebody of this outstanding bravery and humility in Torbay.

Absolutely wonderful.

A very brave lady. She got the MBE.

I hold the MBE, but I'm sure what she did is far more

than I ever did, and yes, it's a great honour to be here today.

For Sister Damian, the mystery of the quiet woman

who guarded her privacy so fiercely has finally been laid to rest.

Now that I know Eileen's name, now that I know about Eileen,

she fooled all of us.

Looking back, I can only explain it that she had never been

properly debriefed, and she thought of herself as a spy.

A remarkable life,

and one that Eileen herself admitted was hard to let go.

-TRANSLATION:

-When I returned after the war,

I, along with thoughts of others, missed that kind of life.

Everything seemed so ordinary.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd