Granger/Harrington Heir Hunters

Today, the Heir Hunters are searching for the beneficiaries

to an estate worth £150,000.

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?

'Hello?'

On today's programme...

It's not looking too good on that side now.

Could the Heir Hunters' worst nightmare be about to come true?

Reluctantly, this might be one

that will go directly to the Government, I'm afraid.

And the death of an independent-minded lady from Worthing

breathes fresh life into one of the 20th century's most notorious scandals.

I am convinced that he was set up at Clevedon with Christine Keeler.

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 that's 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.

Well, if we don't give the money to the rightful people,

then it will end up with the Government.

It's 7:00am 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 more than £5,000,

then they will appear on this list.

-Is that a definite date of birth there?

-That's a date of birth, yes.

-OK.

There are a few cases that look to be worth quite a lot of money.

But one in particular has caught boss Neil Fraser's eye.

So the case we're going to be looking at is David Robin Granger.

Dies on Boxing Day, 2010, in Northampton.

Where it's going to go, I don't know.

So fingers crossed.

David Granger died aged 67 on the 26th of December, 2010.

He left no will, and no photograph of him can be found.

His friend, Steve Hawkins, knew him for 15 years,

and remembers him as a one-off.

He was an interesting man.

Erm... A real perfectionist in everything he did.

David lived in this house in Northampton

right up until his death,

his wife, Anne, having passed away a few years earlier.

I mean, they were dedicated to one another, you know?

Everything they did, they did together.

Um... Between them, they were a real partnership,

Dave was such a loyal person.

He'd use the local butcher

rather than go to the supermarket for his meat,

because it was a traditional thing to do, you know?

Erm... He'd have his milk delivered by the milkman,

because that was the way he was, sort of, brought up, the way things were.

Dave was old school.

He was, er... There's not many left like Dave, he was an eccentric.

Um... An old English gent, if you like.

Back in the office,

and the search to find David's heirs is already under way.

Senior case manager, David Milchard, known round the office as Grimble,

has been put in charge.

It seems that David Granger owned his home in Northampton.

As the average house in that area is worth about £150,000,

the team are hoping that David's estate

will be worth at least that much.

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.

But they can't earn any money unless they find some heirs.

-'Hello, Dave.'

-Hi, David.

So Grimble asks senior researcher on the road, Dave Hadley,

to go over to the property

to see what he can find out from the neighbours.

I... That's where he lived, right.

Yeah, it looks like he owned that property.

OK?

-FROM CAR:

-All right, mate. Bye.

Heir hunting relies heavily on research done in the office,

but most investigations require some face-to-face enquiries.

Senior researchers on the road are based all over the country,

and it's their job to follow up any lead

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

I was just coming to make some enquiries

about the gentleman that used to live in the house,

did you know him at all?

Yeah.

It looks like Dave's in luck.

He bumps into one of David's neighbours on the street.

Was he ever married?

-Yes, his wife died.

-What was her name?

-Anne.

-Anne?

-Yeah.

OK. Did they have any children?

No.

And I never heard any mention of brothers or sisters.

-Right.

-Or for that matter, cousins.

-Right.

Dave goes to phone Grimble to update him.

Yeah, they neighbour said he didn't think there was any siblings.

'Yeah, OK.'

But in the office,

the team have managed to establish who David's parents were.

-Jessie E Jones?

-Yeah.

-When is it?

Marries Charles H Granger, Sep 30, Hammersmith.

David's father was Charles Henry Granger,

and his mother was Jessie Emily Jones.

He was indeed an only child, and had no children of his own.

-Dominic, do you want to look up Charles's, um...birth?

-Yeah.

That means the Heir Hunters will need to look further afield

if they're going to find any beneficiaries.

But under the inheritance laws of England and Wales,

they can only go back as far as the deceased's grandparents,

meaning anyone up to first cousins and their descendants can inherit.

Grimble's first discovery relates to the maternal side of the family.

-Lillian Maud.

-Lillian Maud.

Born in Chelsea.

And Winifred is Winifred Cissie?

After referring to the 1911 census,

he has turned up two maternal aunts for David.

Lillian Maud and Winifred Cissie.

If either of these two had any children,

they would be eligible to inherit from their cousin David.

But almost as soon as these aunts have been found...

-Died when?

-Uh... December, 1918, Hammersmith, aged 26.

..the team comes back with some bad news.

And he appears to have found deaths for both of them, dying as spinsters.

So...

That's not looking too good on that side now.

Since both of David's maternal aunts died childless,

this side of the family can now be declared dead in the water.

Which means that everything is riding on them finding heirs

on David's father's side.

Otherwise, the whole of this potential £150,000 estate

will disappear into the Treasury's coffers.

Researcher Gareth has been tasked with finding a birth certificate

for David's father, Charles Granger. And he's feeling the pressure.

We know he was born in 1905, or he's supposed to be born in 1905.

We can't find a birth record for him and we can't find a census for him.

And because we cant find these, we can't really move on. We're stuck.

So we either need more information, or at the moment, a stroke of luck.

Without the birth certificate, they can't find out

the names of Charles's parents, who would be David's grandparents.

And they need those to search for any of his uncles and aunts.

But over on the other side of the office, case manager Simon

has been thinking outside the box and has come up with the goods.

Well, born on 29 June. Which is the day. It's just 01, and not 05.

We've found a birth that's Charles Henry, in London.

Appears to have the right date of birth.

It's just born in 1901, not 1905.

So one of the many things that could have been wrong

with our not finding the birth was the fact it was the wrong year of birth.

According to Simon's online research,

Charles was born on 29 June, 1901, in Holborn.

His parents, Charles Granger, also known as Henry,

and Martha Peek, were married in Marylebone in 1897.

But despite Simon's breakthrough, this search still isn't getting off the ground.

HE GROANS

Well, we've now found the birth of the father of the deceased, Charles Henry.

So we expect then at that point to, you know, be able to leap forward.

Find the census, start working family.

But in actual fact, we're stuck again on the census.

Gareth's looked through all the Charles Grangers

living in the Holborn area of London in 1911.

But none of them have parents called Charles and Martha.

But just then, a member of the team spots something

and passes it over to Simon.

It's a page from the 1911 census for a school in West London.

It's a Charles Henry Granger, on age, as a scholar.

Unfortunately, it tells you nothing else at all.

So it could be our Charles H, or it couldn't be.

If this young boy is David's father,

then he was obviously away at school in 1911 when the census was taken,

which explains why they can't find him with his family.

Just then, out of the blue,

another Granger child falls into their laps.

This is pukka? It's pukka.

Further scrutiny of that same school census entry has revealed a Frank William Granger.

It seems likely that Frank is Charles's brother

and both boys have been sent away to school.

But there's no way of proving this, because there's no record of Frank's parents' names.

This case is fast turning into an heir hunter's nightmare.

If they can't prove that the deceased's father had any brothers or sisters,

then there will be no entitled heirs on this side of the family either.

Which can only mean one thing.

Reluctantly, this might be one that will go directly to the government, I'm afraid.

Which isn't too good.

Grimble knows that his only chance is to prove that those two schoolboys are brothers.

If he can do that, and trace Frank's descendants,

then that £150,000 inheritance will end up where it should be,

with David Granger's rightful heirs.

Coming up - Gareth goes out on a limb...

I'm wondering, have they just abandoned their first two children, Frank and Charles?

..As the mystery of the missing schoolboys finally unravels.

So much of it ties in. So much of it looks good. We are working it.

Sometimes, heir hunts provide a fascinating link with our nation's history.

Never was this more true than on the case of Constance Harrington,

whose life had been entwined with some of the most tumultuous and scandalous events of our age.

Constance died aged 87 on January 7, 2011.

For the last few years before she died,

Constance lived in this block of flats in Worthing, West Sussex.

Her neighbours, David and Emma Walford, lived downstairs from her.

Constance was definitely a good old-fashioned neighbour.

She'd always be there to say hello to and you know, pick up your mail

and your parcels if you weren't here. And just generally quite friendly.

I would have said that Constance was very well presented.

You could almost see maybe that she'd come from somewhere

where she possibly had money before, possibly.

Throughout the time they knew her, Constance never had any visitors to her flat,

but she seemed to manage very well on her own.

I think Constance was quite strong willed

and I would have said she probably was quite feisty,

because she just came across as being quite confident.

She'd be there, you know, with five or six big carrier bags from Tesco's.

I'd sort of say to her, you know, "Would you like me to help you?"

"Oh no, no, I think I'll be fine. I can get up these flights of stairs!"

Constance never made a will and shortly after she passed away,

her case came to the attention of heir hunter, Dave Slee of Fraser & Fraser.

We very quickly established that Constance had died,

having owned her own property in Worthing.

And therefore we knew that the estate would have some value.

The estate of Constance Harrington was in fact valued at £130,000.

But there was no sign of any immediate family who could be beneficiaries.

The next step was to look for any brothers or sisters

and for that, David needed to get hold of her birth certificate.

It told him that Constance was born in 1922 in Bethnal Green in east London.

And that her parents were Stephen Harrington and Ethel Mullings.

So we undertook a search of birth records in England and Wales

from 1919 up to 1922, when Constance was born.

And then of course we went past that date for another 20 years

and we were able to prove that Constance was in fact an only child.

Constance grew up with her parents in Hackney

and was educated at the local Coburn High School for girls.

She must have done well at school, because after she left,

she became a secretary to the managing directors of several large London firms.

But all that was about to change.

In 1939, the Second World War broke out and by 1943,

Constance had enlisted in the Wrens, the Women's Royal Naval service.

The Wrens play an absolutely key role in the Second World War.

There are about 75,000 of them at the peak in 1944.

There weren't enough male personnel to carry out all the administrative jobs required.

And clearly, the best male personnel tended to be sent to sea.

So what the Wrens allowed you to get was first class people,

running the administration of the Royal Navy.

Christian Lamb also served as a Wren during the war

and remembers the excitement of being a part of the war effort.

It was very difficult to get in,

because lots and lots of people wanted to join.

The girls came from absolutely any background.

It was the war, you must remember this.

And everybody felt desperate to help in any way they could.

Wrens fulfilled every role, from drivers and cooks,

to aircraft mechanics.

But Constance's experiences as a high-level secretary

meant that she was involved with the actual operational planning of the war.

After a first posting to Combined Operations headquarters,

Constance was sent to Norfolk House,

where she worked directly for Lord Louis Mountbatten

as the Allied expeditionary Force prepared for D-Day.

We all knew, of course, that D-Day day was coming up.

But we didn't talk about our own particular part in it.

We were sworn to secrecy.

You just knew that you were living history,

in the sort of way that nobody could imagine that you ever would do

as a girl of what, 25 or something.

The most extraordinary situation.

As a key member of the support staff, Constance was intimately involved

in the creation of what's been called the greatest ever masterpiece of naval planning -

Operation Neptune.

On 6 June, 1944, 7,000 ships landed over 150,000 troops

on the Normandy coast to begin the Allied invasion of France.

The coast was divided into five sectors - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno.

Constance was assigned to Force J, whose destination was Juno Beach.

It demonstrates the complexity of the planning required,

that all these forces, with air support too,

had to be brought in at the right time and in the right place.

And there was, considering the difficulty of the operation, remarkably little confusion.

And that was a tribute to Constance and the other planners.

A few days after the successful completion of Operation Neptune,

one of Constance's commanding officers wrote a letter

recommending her for promotion to officer.

His admiration for Wren Harrington and her work is very clear.

'The success up to now of the small part of the operation

'for which I have been responsible' - quite a large small part, actually -

'is in no small measure due to her hard work and efficiency.'

Clearly, a key role in a key operation.

Back in the office and Dave Slee was engaged in a detailed operation of his own,

tracking down the heirs to Constance's £130,000 estate.

Having established that she was an only child,

he now had to look for any uncles, aunts or cousins.

Through online research,

he discovered that her paternal grandparents were William Harrington and Elizabeth Hawksbee,

who were married in Bethnal Green in 1870 and had seven children.

Dave needed to know if any of these aunts and uncles

had had children who would be Constance's cousins.

So he set about tracing each and every one.

We know that Constance had two paternal aunts,

one named Florence and one named Beatrice.

And we quickly established that it would appear that they both died in Dartford as children.

Now, in view of the fact that the family never appeared to leave Bethnal Green,

it made me think that there must have been some reason why they were in Dartford.

And I kind of had the hunch that probably they died in a hospital.

Dave's hunch turned out to be correct.

Florence and Beatrice's death certificates revealed that they both died in 1894.

Their place of death was given as the hospital ship Atlas,

one of two ships moored on the Thames that were used to house smallpox patients.

Smallpox was probably the most feared disease

from about 1600 onwards, or 1700 onwards.

After the end of the Plague, smallpox was probably

the biggest widespread killer that affected people in the British Isles.

Although smallpox has now been eradicated

thanks to effective vaccination, in the late 19th century,

the big problem was how to isolate sufferers and prevent its spread.

As soon as Constance's aunts were suspected of having the disease,

they would have been taken to a designated wharf on the river,

where they were assessed by doctors.

From there, they were taken by converted paddleboat

out to the two hospital ships - the Atlas and the Endymion.

We know that of the 20,000 people who went from London

to the hospital ships over the 17 or so years that they were in operation,

that about 4,000 died, about 20%.

But at the same time, 16,000 eventually came back home to London.

Sadly, Constance's aunts never returned

to their family in Bethnal Green.

As children, they were particularly vulnerable.

Florence died first, aged 13,

followed three weeks later by her sister Beatrice, aged five.

It turned out that out of Constance's six uncles and aunts, only two of them had married

and had children who could be Constance's heirs.

The eldest one, William, had married a Caroline Tovee

in 1893 in Bethnal Green, and they had a son called Reginald.

He in turn had married and had a son, also called Reginald.

It looked like Dave was finally closing in

on his first beneficiary to Constance Harrington's estate,

but little did he know that this investigation was about to lead him

to the heart of one of the defining events of 20th-century Britain.

From talking with family members, I discovered that Constance

worked for a famous, if somewhat infamous, person

who was involved in a scandal

that rocked the whole of the British establishment.

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 has a list of over 2,000 estates

that have baffled heir hunters and remain unsolved.

Could you be the heir they've been searching for?

Could you been in line for a windfall worth hundreds,

thousands or even millions of pounds?

Estates stay on the list for up to 30 years,

and today we're focussing on three names.

Are they relatives of yours?

Anna Buglar died in Gillingham, Dorset, in November 2005.

Buglar is a rare surname in the UK,

but is most commonly found in the West Country.

Does the name Buglar ring a bell for you?

Carel Willem Johannes Van Greuning died in Hove in February 2001.

Carel's name indicates

that he was probably from the Netherlands or Flanders.

Do you remember him? Can you help solve this case?

Kathleen Marjorie Daye died in Bordesley Green, Birmingham,

in June 2001.

Although Daye is a common surname, this spelling is fairly unusual.

Were you a friend or neighbour of Kathleen's?

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

If the names Anna Buglar, Carel Van Greuning or Kathleen Daye

mean anything to you or someone you know,

you could have a fortune coming your way.

The heir hunters have been investigating

the £150,000 estate of David Grainger who died in Northampton aged 67.

No photograph of David can be found.

The office have discovered that after a successful career

at a computer firm in Warwick, David left to join

a wrought iron business and started working with his hands,

a passion he shared with his friend Steve.

Whatever he did, it was perfection.

There was always a better way of doing something with Dave,

and Dave would find a way.

If you ever needed help, Dave was always there.

You know, you could ring Dave up,

and he was the first person to help you out.

David was undoubtedly very generous to his friends,

but he was naturally quite reserved.

Dave was, as far as I know, was an only child.

Um, he was brought up in Northamptonshire.

He never really discussed his personal life.

So far, this case has been a frustrating one

for case manager Grimble.

There are no entitled heirs on the maternal side,

and on the father's side, his best lead

is a tantalising glimpse of two boys' names on the 1911 census.

The census entry for the residential West London District School

shows a Charles Granger aged six, who could be David's father,

and a Frank Granger aged eight, who could be his uncle.

Neil think he knows why the boys aren't registered with their family.

Is it a poor school? Is it a poor school, is it?

Yeah, so they've been abandoned in a poor school.

The school they were at was the West London District School

and was one of several in London known as poor schools

that took in children from poor families

who couldn't afford to care for them themselves.

It was quite a large building.

It housed pretty much 700 or 800 children

and had a large dining hall and very large grounds.

It had about 70 acres of grounds.

It was actually its own little community, a little village, almost.

They were taught shoemaking, carpentry,

anything that would make them employable in later life.

They would stay there either until their parents left the workhouse

and they would be united, or in some cases they would stay there

until they reached the age of 15

when they would then be old enough to lead an independent life.

If the two boys on the census WERE David's father and uncle,

it seems that they grew up separated from their parents,

and after they left the school, it's unlikely

that they would have returned to the family,

which is going to make it even harder for Neil

to make the vital connection that will prove he's on the right track.

But in the meantime,

all they can do is press on and pursue every lead they have.

-I, or without the I on his...?

-With the I.

Gareth has been trying to trace Frank Grainger after he left the school

and has found three marriages that could be relevant.

-What's the first one?

-Emily. B-A-I-L-E-Y.

One of the marriages to an Emily Bailey seems promising,

so they immediately put in a request for a certificate.

It turns out this marriage produced three children,

who could be first cousins to David.

Further investigation reveals that Peter and Anne have died,

but James, it appears, is still alive.

He's a potential claimant.

We can't be 100% sure at the moment, but from what we can see

from the records, there's a good chance he is part of the family.

And hopefully, by talking to him, he may give us

some information that may put it all together, so we'll give him a try.

Dave sends senior heir hunter on the road, Bob Barrett, round to James's house,

but Bob's been warned that this could be a wild goose chase.

It may very well NOT be an heir, so the first thing I'll do

if I manage to find this gentleman in is to try and ascertain

that he comes from the right family.

-Richard Granger?

-He's in luck.

James Grainger is in, so Bob gets straight down to business.

-So you don't know your dad's date of birth?

-No, no, I don't.

But quickly realises he's not going to get the answers he's looking for.

-Or where he was born?

-No.

-And you don't know when he died?

-No.

You don't remember any aunts and uncles on his side?

Nobody has ever mentioned anything about that side.

It turns out that James's parents split up when he was very young,

so he knows nothing about his real father, Frank Grainger.

Although Bob still isn't convinced that James is an entitled heir,

he talks him through the process of claiming on an estate.

Just one signature just there.

James is happy for the heir hunters

to help him make his claim to the Treasury,

if he turns out to be connected to the family.

Right, be seeing you, then.

Everything about this case is still very uncertain.

Bob may have just signed up his first heir, and if he has,

then James could finally fill in the gaps in his family history.

Money doesn't really bother me,

so it's nice to know, cos I don't know a lot of my relatives.

Well, I mean, I was too young, put it that way,

and I was never one for investigating.

I just take life as it comes.

-Hiya, Grimble, please.

-Meanwhile, Bob checks back in with the office.

Would you believe it, the one time when we need someone to know

something about their father, this Mr Grainger doesn't.

But even as Bob is relaying his latest setback to Grimble,

downstairs, Gareth is having a eureka moment.

I'm wondering, have they just abandoned their first two children, Frank and Charles?

Possibly because they couldn't afford to look after them,

and at a later date, they've been in a better position and started having kids again.

Gareth's found an entry on the 1911 census

for a Henry and Martha Granger.

It shows them having two children, Thomas and Rose.

There's no mention of Charles or Frank,

the two boys who had been sent away to the poor school,

but Gareth thinks that they are part of the same family.

We're not sure it's right, but so much of it ties in,

so much of it looks good. We're working it.

If his theory's correct,

then he's just found another aunt and uncle of the deceased.

James Grainger, the newly signed potential heir,

would also be their nephew.

If Thomas and Rose had gone on to have children,

they would also be heirs, but frustratingly,

this is where the trail runs dry.

It's like a whole section of the family, for some reason, has vanished.

It's really hard, this case.

But undaunted, Simon and Gareth get stuck into this new challenge,

and between them, they find out the truth.

Thomas, it seems, died as an infant, but Rose hadn't vanished.

She'd emigrated.

-Where was your guess for Rose?

-Arkansas.

-They've gone to America.

-Well done.

Rose Granger may have died, but she has a daughter living in America.

She is another potential first cousin of David's

and heir to his estate.

Simon is delighted.

So it looks as if they've gone to Arkansas,

and more importantly, she's on the phone.

It's 2pm in London, and 8am in Arkansas.

Grimble rings the possible cousin with what he hopes

will be a happy wake-up call.

Right, she was Rose, was she? Right. OK.

Can you tell me, did your mother have any other brothers or sisters at all?

It's vital that Grimble establishes a link

between Rose's daughter and the deceased.

The two brothers that left home,

were they older or younger than your mother?

Amazingly, she seems to know a lot about her mother's family,

and it looks like it's tying in with Gareth's theory.

Bye-bye. A lovely old girl.

Well, don't know if it's the right family,

but everything adds up, doesn't' it?

She's saying that her mother, um, she had two brothers that left home,

and that's basically our deceased father and his brother Frank.

The grandmother had two other children.

Grimble heads down downstairs to share the good news.

She read out all the details on her mother's birth certificate that she had,

which gives us date of birth and confirms Henry and Martha Amy.

-Peek?

-Peek. That's definitely right as far as that's concerned.

It's a great result for the team.

All their hard work has finally paid off,

but there's still one missing piece to this jigsaw.

Is James Grainger, who signed the agreement earlier,

really David Grainger's first cousin and a bona fide heir to his estate?

The answer is contained on his father Frank Grainger's marriage certificate,

which has just arrived in the office.

So this is our guy. He is right.

The certificate proves that Frank and Charles, the two boys

who were sent away to the poor school, were indeed brothers.

Frank's father is listed as Henry Grainger,

who was Charles's father as well.

This means that Frank's son James is a first cousin

and heir of the deceased.

Grimble is delighted.

I think we've got the right family.

Full marks to all the researches down there.

They've done a very good job, I think.

In the end,

the heir hunters traced a total of six beneficiaries on this case.

Fraser & Fraser estimate the estate could be worth as much as £480,000

based on the sale of David's businesses, but the final value

will only be confirmed by the Treasury to the heirs.

All in all, it's was a good day's heir hunting, and Neil knows it.

Hard work and good research has enabled us to solve a case

which this morning looked like it may never be solved.

Back on the case of ex-Wren Constance Harrington,

who died at the age of 87,

leaving behind her an estate worth £130,000, but no will.

Heir hunter Dave Slee's search for Constance's heirs has brought him

to the brink of his first major breakthrough.

By tracing the descendants of her Uncle William,

he had arrived at her first cousin once removed, Reginald Harrington.

Reginald was Dave's first live heir on this case,

so he didn't waste any time getting in touch.

It was a complete surprise to me.

I had no idea, in fact, that I had a cousin once removed,

named Constance.

It turned out that for some reason, Reginald's father,

also called Reginald,

had had very little contact with his family after he married.

I didn't come across my family until I was a young man myself,

so my paternal family is quite distant to me,

which is one of the reasons why I'm now so keen to learn more.

Did she talk about any of the others?

Dave was able to tell Reginald about his cousin Constance's

illustrious wartime career, but as it turned out,

this was only her first step along the corridors of power.

As the investigation continued and Dave spoke to more

of Constance's descendants, he made a fascinating discovery.

I found out from a family member that, incredibly,

Constance at one time was working as the private secretary to John Profumo

who, later on, as the Minister of War,

was involved in the Profumo scandal.

John Profumo was a Conservative politician

who served as Secretary of State for War from 1960 to 1963.

During this time, he had an adulterous affair with

a glamorous call girl named Christine Keeler, sparking off

one of the greatest political scandals of the 20th century.

Profumo famously fell for Christine's charms

when they met by the swimming pool of Cliveden House,

where they were both guests at a house party.

The year was 1961, a time when Constance's family believe

she was working as his private secretary.

Profumo and Christine embarked on a brief affair that ended

after he was warned about her friendship

with society osteopath Stephen Ward.

It was known to the security services that Ward had

some connections and had been trying to make contact with the Russians.

Ward seems to have been a bit of a fantasist

and was trying to sell secrets to the Russians and find ways of doing that.

Fast-forward 18 months,

and the press have got wind of the affair and are hounding Christine.

It's become known that another of her boyfriends,

also introduced to her by Ward, was Yevgeni Ivanov,

a Russian naval attache to the Soviet embassy in London.

One of the reasons why the Profumo affair becomes so toxic

is because it could be associated with security scandals

and with the whole idea of spying

in the wake of a series of spy scandals

which had broken over the previous year or so.

Profumo offered to resign,

but when questioned in private by members of his own party,

he denied that he had had a relationship with Keeler.

He went on to reaffirm that in the House of Commons

in his statement on 22nd March 1963,

and it's that statement that

"there as no impropriety in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler"

which came back to bite him later on in the year,

when it became apparent that this was untrue.

As Profumo's right-hand woman, Constance would have been

at his side throughout this difficult period,

offering her skill, professionalism and, of course, complete discretion.

Good private secretaries would have been brought up not to have enquired

into things that don't directly concern them anyway.

But it turned out nothing could save him.

On 5th June 1963, after sustained pressure by the press and MPs,

John Profumo finally admitted his lie

and resigned from the Government.

He devoted the rest of his life to charity,

and in 1975, 20 years after his fall from grace,

he was awarded the CBE.

By the time he dies in 2006,

he's felt to have fully atoned for his crimes, such as they were,

and to have made a signal contribution to society,

but in a rather different way from during his parliamentary career.

Constance was a loyal secretary to Profumo

and all the important figures that she worked with

over her astounding career.

For Dave Slee, it was a successful and eye-opening investigation.

Thank you now, bye-bye.

Initially, we just thought this is in a state of hover.

A lady that's lived in London and retired, as so many people do,

onto the south coast, and it wasn't until we delved deeper

into Constance's background that we discovered

what a fascinating life she led.

So, from our point of view, to research estates where people have

this connection with famous events is, of course, really rewarding.

In the end, the company found 30 heirs

to Constance's £130,000 estate,

15 on each side of the family.

The investigation was over,

but the heir hunters had accumulated some fascinating information

about Constance which they wanted to share with their cousin Reginald,

so senior researcher on the road, Dave Hadley, went over to meet him.

-Mr Harrington.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-It's good to see you.

-And you.

-As well as the Harrington family tree...

-That's Constance.

-Constance, yes.

-And there's you.

-Yes.

..Dave has also brought a letter written by Constance

to one of her maternal cousins.

-I'll let you read the letter.

-Thank you.

In it, she speaks of an enduring friendship with Profumo and his wife.

"He invited me to stay with him

"and his wife at their country cottage in Sawbridgeworth.

"I felt very honoured."

The letter also offers an intriguing glimpse into her thoughts

about the scandal that put an end to her boss's career.

"I am convinced that he was set up at Cliveden with Christine Keeler.

"People who did not want him to rise to the top and were jealous of him.

"He was a top man. He made a mistake,

"but we are all sinners, are we not?"

Hearing Constance's point of view is a moving experience

for both heir hunter and heir.

Somehow, I feel I almost have a link with her.

I was in the Royal Marines myself.

She was a Wren and, I don't know, there's a closeness

that seems to have developed now which I didn't dream would happen.

It's been absolutely fascinating.

It turns out there are other family similarities as well.

Like her cousin Constance before her,

Reg's younger daughter Claire has also had a high-flying career.

As a PA at 10 Downing Street, she's worked for three Prime Ministers

and travelled all over the world on state business.

There's a parallel there, isn't there, that they both have worked

at the highest level, so I'm very proud of both of them, I really am.

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