0:00:02 > 0:00:04Heir hunters earn their living tracing the relatives
0:00:04 > 0:00:07of people who have died without leaving a will.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09The estate was in the region of £100,000.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14They hand over money to family members who had no idea they were in line to inherit.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Their work involves painstaking investigation...
0:00:18 > 0:00:22So these kids could all be right, all be wrong or half and half.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26..and it can give people a whole new perspective on the past.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Oh, really? That is amazing, isn't it?
0:00:30 > 0:00:35But, most of all, the work is giving people news of an unexpected windfall.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37Could the heir hunters be knocking at your door?
0:00:43 > 0:00:44Coming up...
0:00:44 > 0:00:47The moving story of a pioneering aviator
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and the daughter who never really knew him...
0:00:50 > 0:00:52He's always been a mystery to me.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56The more I'm finding out about him, the more I really rather like him.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01The Cambridge student who became a socialist revolutionary playwright...
0:01:01 > 0:01:06He was certainly one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Plus how you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates
0:01:09 > 0:01:11held by the Treasury Solicitor.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13Could a fortune be heading your way?
0:01:19 > 0:01:22London, and at the offices of the country's largest heir hunting firm,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Fraser & Fraser, the team has received some surprising
0:01:26 > 0:01:30new information about a case they thought was solved.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35- That's good. At least we know it's... - His date of birth.- Yeah.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39In 2010, the firm delved into the case of Diana Paine,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42who was born Diana Vaughan-Fowler.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44They built a detailed family tree
0:01:44 > 0:01:48and believed they had found every living heir to her £22,000 estate.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51But just as they were beginning to think the case was
0:01:51 > 0:01:55done and dusted, they've been hit by a bolt from the blue -
0:01:55 > 0:01:58a phone call from a woman called Joan Aldridge who believes
0:01:58 > 0:02:00she may be Diana's cousin.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05My grandparents had three sons.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11One of those first two brothers was the father of Diana Paine,
0:02:11 > 0:02:16and then my father was born about 12 years later than that.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20It's come as a shock for boss Neil.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25The administration of estates takes anywhere from nine,
0:02:25 > 0:02:30ten months, up to about 18 months on English cases.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Now, some of the time we're pretty lucky and late on in the day,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39once the job's been done, virtually, a beneficiary comes forward.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Fortunately for the heir hunters,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44the case of Diana Paine is not fully closed,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48so there's still time to investigate whether Joan is a relative that they've missed,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51and whether she is entitled to a share of Diana's estate.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Diana Paine was 91 years old
0:02:57 > 0:03:01when she died in Tunbridge Wells in April 2010.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05She spent the last 18 years of her life with her companion Ernest Armstrong,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09who she'd met through a lonely hearts advert in a magazine.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Both of us were looking for one thing and one thing only,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15and that was companionship.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20You can't wander round a house all day long looking at pictures -
0:03:20 > 0:03:23you have to do something.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27So we were very lucky. We clicked right away.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Diana had been married twice but didn't have any children,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34a source of great regret to her.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Oh, she certainly would have loved to have had a family of her own, which...
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Even cocker spaniels don't make up for the lack of children.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Despite her sadness at never becoming a mother,
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Diana built a good life for herself,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55running a chain of women's clothing boutiques.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58And although she left behind £22,000,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Diana left no will to say who should get it.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04I don't know why she didn't make a will.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Whether simply because she didn't have any relations as such
0:04:09 > 0:04:12to whom the money would have gone.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19When someone dies without leaving a will, their estate is
0:04:19 > 0:04:22usually advertised on the Treasury's Bona Vacantia list.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26If it's not claimed, the money can end up in the government's coffers.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Keen to prevent this happening,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Ernest contacted a firm of solicitors who, in turn,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35called in the heir hunters, and case manager Dave Slee.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38I took a call from a solicitor who was anxious to try
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and trace heirs as quickly as possible.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46It was only a fairly modest estate, but the estate was being eaten into
0:04:46 > 0:04:52by costs all the time because rent was still accruing on the estate.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Working for a percentage of the estate,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Dave's team got straight on the case.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Using birth, marriage and death records,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03they quickly established that neither of Diana's siblings had children.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Next they turned to her father's family, the Vaughan-Fowlers.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Because Diana's mother's maiden name was Potter,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16that's a much more difficult surname to research, of course.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I decided, because time was of the essence,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22we would research the Vaughan-Fowlers first.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Diana's father Alfred had two brothers, Ivor and Hugh.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32And although both had long since passed away,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36their descendants would be heirs to Diana's estate.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40In total, Dave found eight heirs from Ivor's branch of the family,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44but with Hugh, it was an altogether different story.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49Hugh Vaughan-Fowler was born in 1899 in Warwick in England.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54Knowing his date of birth, we started a search from 1915 onwards
0:05:54 > 0:05:59to see if he married in England and Wales and that proved negative.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03We then established that he actually died in 1961 at the Aero Club
0:06:03 > 0:06:07in Piccadilly in central London.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10What was kind of strange about that death certificate is the informant
0:06:10 > 0:06:15on the death certificate didn't appear to be a family member.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19So for all intents and purposes, initially it would appear,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21we thought, that he died as a bachelor.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25With apparently no living heirs from Hugh,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29the team thought they'd found every heir on the Vaughan-Fowler side
0:06:29 > 0:06:33of the family, but the call from Joan Aldridge suggests otherwise.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40I contacted Heir Hunters to tell them that my father,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45Hugh Raymond Vaughan-Fowler, had in fact been married
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and I was his daughter.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54But if Joan is Hugh's daughter, why hadn't the heir hunters found
0:06:54 > 0:06:57her when they were doing their initial research?
0:06:57 > 0:07:02As Hugh's life story begins to emerge, the answer becomes clear.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Hugh Vaughan-Fowler spent the majority of his life overseas
0:07:06 > 0:07:08due to his career in aviation.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Hugh Vaughan-Fowler was a skilled fighter pilot and highly-respected
0:07:14 > 0:07:19RAF flying instructor who trained pilots during the First World War.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23In 1921 at the age of 22,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27he got a golden opportunity to work abroad and travelled out to Japan.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33It was Hugh's first trip to Asia, but by no means his last.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36In fact, he was to spend much of his life there,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39and this may explain why the heir hunters didn't find Joan's birth.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44People now are being born in this country, travelling more,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49emigrating, marrying overseas, having their children overseas, returning,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53going away again. So that does complicate the research.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58From speaking to Joan, Dave has now learned that whilst
0:07:58 > 0:08:02working in Shanghai, Hugh married a British woman, Hazel Fowler,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04in January 1932.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Their daughter Joan was born in October of the same year.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Because both the marriage and the birth had taken place in China,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15they hadn't shown up on UK records.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18And because they didn't know Hugh had lived abroad,
0:08:18 > 0:08:22the heir hunters had no reason to check overseas records.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28Their problem was that my father had been born and died in England
0:08:28 > 0:08:31and therefore they weren't looking for a marriage in Shanghai.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35But armed with this new information,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38the heir hunters have been able to check consular records abroad
0:08:38 > 0:08:42and confirm that Joan is indeed an heir to Diana Paine's estate.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Our research proved that Joan
0:08:47 > 0:08:50was the last surviving paternal first cousin.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55It was pleasing to eventually locate Joan
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and be able to prove her claim to a share in this estate.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03The heir hunt is now well and truly over - hopefully, this time, for good.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08But for Joan, the journey is only just beginning.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10Finding out she's an heir has inspired her to forge
0:09:10 > 0:09:13a stronger connection with her father,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15from whom she was separated as a child.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22My mother brought me back to England when I was about two years old,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26and went to live with my mother's parents.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29And my father didn't come with us.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Sadly, Joan's parents split up and, rather than return
0:09:32 > 0:09:37to the UK, Hugh moved to India where he took a job with the air force.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39My parents never got back together again,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41and subsequently they divorced.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Hugh lived abroad for the rest of his life,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50and sadly Joan never had the chance to develop a relationship with him.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53I wish that I had known my father when I was growing up,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57because I feel I've missed out on a great deal,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00particularly as he seems to be a very interesting person.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It does mean a lot to me to find out about my father,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06because he's always been a mystery to me.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14And, as Joan is about to find out, her father was a remarkable man.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Your father could almost be called one of the prophets of Pearl Harbor.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Oh, really? That is amazing, isn't it?
0:10:28 > 0:10:30In their search for relatives,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33heir hunters often uncover an interesting life story.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39And that's exactly what happened in the case of Bruce Birchall,
0:10:39 > 0:10:45whose quiet death in 2011 gave no hint of his very eventful life.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49As Bruce didn't leave a will, his estate was advertised as unclaimed
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and was picked up by heir hunters, Fraser & Fraser.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Simon Mills was the case manager.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Upon starting the case we thought it would be very low value.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00The only reason we ran with it at all
0:11:00 > 0:11:03is because the list was very small on that day.
0:11:05 > 0:11:12Bruce Birchall died on the 3rd February 2011, in Hammersmith Hospital in west London.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14He was 65 years old.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18To friends like Bill Hartston, he was a colourful character.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22He was just certainly one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24He was quite unlike anything else.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28I think I heard his name first about 50 years ago when we were both about
0:11:28 > 0:11:3214 or 15, and we were both promising young chess players at the time.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36I heard that one contestant had turned up for one round wearing only
0:11:36 > 0:11:38a swimming costume. As I got to know him,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42I just realised that he was a genuine eccentric, I think.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45I'm sure that he only wore a swimming costume not to draw attention
0:11:45 > 0:11:47to himself, but because the room was too hot
0:11:47 > 0:11:51and that was the most comfortable gear he could think of.
0:11:51 > 0:11:57For Bruce, chess became a passion he would pursue for the rest of his life.
0:11:57 > 0:11:58He loved the challenge of the game,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03the problem-solving challenge of the game, but he did involve himself very
0:12:03 > 0:12:07much in chess coaching and wanted to spread this love of the game.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10A highly intelligent and creative man,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Bruce was also involved in alternative theatre.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18I think he was motivated by a combination of this
0:12:18 > 0:12:21endless flow of ideas and wanting to use them in some way,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23and this enormous desire to be himself.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Experimental theatre is perfect for someone like that.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Bruce's last known address was a housing association
0:12:31 > 0:12:33flat in west London.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37The Treasury's Bona Vacantia list doesn't show the value of the estate,
0:12:37 > 0:12:42but because Bruce didn't own a property, it looked unlikely to be a fortune.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Heir hunters work for a percentage of the estate,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48so taking on this job was a big gamble.
0:12:48 > 0:12:54We are normally very busy, so if we have a case with no obvious
0:12:54 > 0:12:57value in it we'll stop and concentrate on other things.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00It was quite a slow morning so we decided to pursue it.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05By studying marriage and birth records, Simon first
0:13:05 > 0:13:09established that Bruce was a bachelor who didn't have any children.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13The next step was to find out whether he had any brothers or sisters.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18We went back and looked at the electoral register for the address,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22a sort of indication that the deceased might have been born in 1946.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24So then we went and did a birth search.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26We found a record in Nottingham, I believe it was,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30that had his father down as a Birchall, obviously,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33his surname, and his mother's maiden name was Vasservogel.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36Bruce's father Sydney
0:13:36 > 0:13:41and his mother Trude had married in Nottingham in 1943.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45A search of birth records revealed that Bruce had been their only child,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49so the heir hunters now had to look for uncles, aunts and cousins.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52And because Trude had such an unusual name,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56Simon was optimistic about his chances of finding them.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58When you come across a name like Vasservogel,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01the mother's maiden name, it's...
0:14:01 > 0:14:05It's a blessing, really, because when you look for brothers
0:14:05 > 0:14:09and sisters and the marriage, a rare name really helps you be sure
0:14:09 > 0:14:13that any records that you uncover are going to be correct.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18In fact, the heir hunters couldn't find records of any other Vasservogels in the UK.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22Determined not to give up, they extended their search abroad.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26When we uncovered the name Vasservogel we thought that it's
0:14:26 > 0:14:30highly likely there's a German link, at least German-speaking link.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34We could find no record of her birth as Vasservogel over here,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38so once we'd found the death record it said that Trude was born in Vienna.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Armed with this new information, the heir hunters were able to find
0:14:43 > 0:14:46out more about Bruce's mother's side of the family.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50The grandfather on the maternal side was called Otto.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Otto Vasservogel married an Elsa Himmler.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57They had two children, Trude, who was the mother of the deceased,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59and her brother Kurt.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Kurt was Trude's younger brother.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04If he had any living descendants,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06they would be heirs to Bruce's estate.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09It was a significant breakthrough for the heir hunters,
0:15:09 > 0:15:14but tracking down Kurt's family was to prove far from simple.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17He was in the American army,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20which indicated that they'd all emigrated to America.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23The records are a lot more sparse, there's not much for us to check,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25certainly from here in the UK,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29and it becomes very frustrating and can really slow the research down.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Simon and his team trawled the internet looking for any
0:15:33 > 0:15:37snippet of information on Bruce's Uncle Kurt.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39Finally, they came up trumps.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42We'd uncovered a newspaper article which gave us
0:15:42 > 0:15:44a little bit of information about him.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48It mentioned that he adopted two children in Germany in the '50s,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and then he retired back to America, in Florida.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56This was the breakthrough they'd been hoping for.
0:15:56 > 0:15:57As Bruce's first cousins,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Kurt's adopted children would be heirs to his estate.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Having made some progress on the maternal side of the family,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08the team now turned their attention to his father Sydney's family.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12In 1911 census provided a vital clue.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15It showed that the father of the deceased was living with
0:16:15 > 0:16:19his parents, Thomas and Elizabeth, and also his brothers, Harold and Thomas.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24Sydney was the youngest of the three brothers.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27If either Harold or Thomas had any living descendants,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31they would be heirs to Bruce's estate.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34We were lucky that one of the uncles of the deceased was
0:16:34 > 0:16:38a Thomas Hubert Birchall, which are a nice combination of names,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43so we got on and tried to work him up.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46A search of marriage and birth records revealed that Thomas married
0:16:46 > 0:16:52a woman called Florence Starkey in 1928, and they'd had one child.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Bruce's first cousin, Hillary. The team had found its first heir.
0:16:57 > 0:17:03Bruce was my baby cousin, and I knew him very well when he was growing up.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06And when he went to university, I knew him up till then.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10But after that, I didn't really have anything directly to do with him,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12although his parents did keep me
0:17:12 > 0:17:16very well informed as to what he was doing.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20According to Hillary, Bruce was the black sheep of the family who
0:17:20 > 0:17:23turned his back on his middle class roots to embrace the radical
0:17:23 > 0:17:25counterculture of his youth.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32In the '60s and '70s we were having a very conventional, professional life.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Bruce was not.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38He decided to take an alternative route
0:17:38 > 0:17:41and he became an extreme socialist.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45Bruce wanted to spread the word about his socialist beliefs
0:17:45 > 0:17:48in as many ways as possible.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52In 1969 he made headlines when he became a prominent
0:17:52 > 0:17:56member of the London Street Commune, a militant group of squatters
0:17:56 > 0:18:00which famously took over an empty mansion in central London.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Playwright David Edgar knew Bruce at the time.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06The big thing that I know Bruce was involved in was
0:18:06 > 0:18:08the squatting of 144 Piccadilly.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12This five-storey disused house on the edge of Hyde Park was
0:18:12 > 0:18:14taken over for three weeks by around 100 young people
0:18:14 > 0:18:19in an occupation that was to become known as Hippydilly.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22It was a symbol of the squatting movement, whose members believed
0:18:22 > 0:18:26it was immoral for properties to lie empty while people were living on
0:18:26 > 0:18:31the streets, and who also wanted to build a new communal way of living.
0:18:31 > 0:18:37While it's very easy now to look on that and look on it as being mad
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and indeed, possibly bad and dangerous to know,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43actually it was very important and challenging.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48The people in the late '60s and early '70s who said, "We've got to find
0:18:48 > 0:18:52"a new way of living," were, to a certain extent, an anticipation
0:18:52 > 0:18:55of the movements for gay rights, for women's liberation,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57for all kinds of other things.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00The discovery of Bruce's unconventional lifestyle
0:19:00 > 0:19:03reaffirmed the heir hunters' belief that his estate was,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06in all probability, worth very little.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Nevertheless, the heir hunters helped the family submit their claim
0:19:09 > 0:19:11to the Treasury solicitor,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14hoping they may be able to recoup some of their costs.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16It was quite a surprise to everybody
0:19:16 > 0:19:20when the letter came in and said the estate was in the region of £100,000.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23For somebody that doesn't own their own property,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25that's a lot of money to have in the bank.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28He's obviously saved a lot of money.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31And as Bruce's remarkable life story continues to unfold,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34there are plenty more surprises in store.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43Despite the efforts of the heir hunters,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46there are still thousands of unclaimed estates in the UK.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50In Scotland, these are dealt with by the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer,
0:19:50 > 0:19:57or QLTR, and in England and Wales estates are handled by the Treasury's Bona Vacantia Division.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01The Bona Vacantia unclaimed list is a list of estates
0:20:01 > 0:20:06going back from 1997, which haven't actually been solved.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08We've had ministered those estates
0:20:08 > 0:20:11but they are still available to claim.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Today, we are focusing on two cases from the QLTR that remain unsolved.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Could you be the beneficiary the heir hunters have been looking for?
0:20:20 > 0:20:25Andrew Black died in hospital in Dunfermline on 14th June 2005.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28He was 62 years old.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Andrew lived at Thornton at Kirkcaldy, Fife
0:20:32 > 0:20:38and his estate is worth just under £3,500. Did you know Andrew?
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Are you one of his missing relatives?
0:20:41 > 0:20:46Next is the £4,000 estate of Helen Haldane Boyd from Glasgow.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Helen died in the Southern General Hospital on the 1st December 2005,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53aged 67. Were you a friend of Helen?
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Do you have any information that could help
0:20:56 > 0:20:58in the search for her relatives?
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Both Andrew and Helen's estates remain unclaimed and
0:21:02 > 0:21:05if no-one comes forward, their money will go to the Scottish Government.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Here are those names once again.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14If you are one of their long-lost relatives,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17you could have a windfall coming your way.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29In London, the heir hunters were looking into the case
0:21:29 > 0:21:34of Bruce Birchall who had died in 2011 without leaving a will.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37His estate was worth a whopping £100,000,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41which came as a shock to case manager Simon Mills.
0:21:41 > 0:21:47When we started looking, we honestly thought it would be very, very low value.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51A housing association property, lived on his own,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54no sign that he ever had any money.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57It goes to show that when you discount something initially,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00there could still be a lot of value in an estate.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Bruce Birchall came from an affluent middle-class family
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and won a place at Peterhouse College, Cambridge,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15where he made a name for himself in avant-garde student theatre.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Bill Hartston was at Cambridge at the same time as Bruce.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23I went to a production of one of his plays.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27I think it was certainly the most impressive thing I saw on stage in Cambridge.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31It was just him, just the way he thought the thing should be done.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33It was quite extraordinary.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Bruce staged a production of a notorious 1964 play called
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Marat/Sade, set in a mental asylum during the French Revolution.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48It was put on by Bruce in the bathhouse of Peterhouse
0:22:48 > 0:22:55in Cambridge with a cast of very dangerous-looking lunatics.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58I am sure that the authorities at Peterhouse would not have
0:22:58 > 0:23:01lent their bathhouse to such a production
0:23:01 > 0:23:04if they had known quite how outrageous it was going to be.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07This controversial production was an early sign
0:23:07 > 0:23:12of the far from conventional character Bruce was to become.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15Shortly after he left Cambridge, I met him purely by chance.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18He said then that he was involved in experimental theatre.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23Of course, I wasn't surprised and always thought the theatre was the right place for him
0:23:23 > 0:23:26but I've always had this ambivalent attitude towards him,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30that on the one hand, I have immense admiration for what he was doing,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33and on the other hand, I didn't want to get too close.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36This was counter-culture and I was very staid
0:23:36 > 0:23:40and a good, honest member of culture as it was.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The search for beneficiaries to Bruce's £100,000 estate
0:23:47 > 0:23:50was being run by case manager Simon Mills.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Early signs were not good because Bruce was an only child
0:23:53 > 0:23:57who had never married or had children of his own.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00But when Simon and his team looked at Bruce's parents,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03they found Bruce's mother, Trude, had a brother, Kurt,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05who had moved abroad and adopted two children.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09These were Bruce's first cousins and would-be heirs to his estate.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15The team was having better luck with the paternal side of Bruce's family.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20His father, Sydney, had two brothers, Thomas and Harold.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Each of them married and had one daughter.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27These two women are Bruce's first cousins and heirs to his estate.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29One of them, Hillary,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32has mixed feelings about her benefactor's alternative lifestyle.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37He certainly felt alienated from society
0:24:37 > 0:24:40and wanted to change society, I feel,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44but the way he went about doing it, actually didn't get him anywhere
0:24:44 > 0:24:49because people just thought he was being the black sheep of the family.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54So far as we knew, he never got what we would call a conventional job,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57so we felt that he was lazy.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00But unbeknown to his family,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Bruce had led a very full and exciting life.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08Playwright David Edgar got to know Bruce through the experimental
0:25:08 > 0:25:10theatre movement of the late '60s and early '70s.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17Bruce was a revolutionary on the anarchic wing of the revolution.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21And he believed that theatre should be used to bring that about
0:25:21 > 0:25:25and what you should do is talk to workers and struggle
0:25:25 > 0:25:28and you should make plays that reflected what they said to you
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and would encourage other workers to join them.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Bruce wrote dozens of short,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37highly politicised plays which were performed,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41not in traditional theatres, but in clubs, community centres,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43workplaces and even on the streets.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49They were very small-scale agitprop pieces in which contemporary,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52very contemporary economic and social issues would be presented,
0:25:52 > 0:25:57often in a cartoon way, so, you know, you would do the miners' strike
0:25:57 > 0:26:01as an episode of the Generation Game and that was what Bruce believed in.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06The alternative theatre movement blossomed against a backdrop
0:26:06 > 0:26:10of increasing political and social unrest.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12The Vietnam war was raging.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Nixon was President of the United States.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17There were riots across American cities.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20In this country there were a student sit-ins in the late '60s.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22And then in the early '70s,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25there was an extraordinary upsurge of industrial militancy.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Everybody was on strike and the lights were constantly going out.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Trains, docks, postman,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34many, many sectors were in really revolt against the Government.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Although the political situation began to improve in the late 1970s
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and early '80s, Bruce stayed loyal to the cause.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47In 1982, he set-up the Liverpool Lunchtime Theatre Group
0:26:47 > 0:26:49with playwright Paul Goetzee.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54Liverpool is a very radical, anarchic city, politically.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Bruce was attracted by that
0:26:57 > 0:27:02and he thought he could make something of it. He went where radical politics was.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05And as his new colleagues found out,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Bruce had lost none of his revolutionary zeal.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Bruce always wrote a certain kind of play,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15he had a definite style and it wasn't to everybody's taste.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18He wanted to preach and teach and boost the morale of people
0:27:18 > 0:27:21who felt they were being completely oppressed.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26His decades-long involvement with the theatre is a side of her cousin
0:27:26 > 0:27:29that Hillary knows little about.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Keen to learn more she has come to meet his former colleague, Paul,
0:27:33 > 0:27:34in London's West End.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38- Hello.- Hi, Hillary. How are you doing?- Shall we go in?
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Bruce and Paul were among four playwrights who set up
0:27:43 > 0:27:46the Liverpool Lunchtime Theatre, a fringe group that started life
0:27:46 > 0:27:50putting on short plays in pubs and clubs.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Bruce was instrumental in helping it grow.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59- He got us funding, because he's very clever, very sharp.- Absolutely.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01Oh, yes. He was very clever.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04So without him we wouldn't have had the same rigorous approach
0:28:04 > 0:28:07to funding because we were a bit lackadaisical.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09He kept us on the right lines.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Although Bruce only had one drama staged by the group, he actually
0:28:14 > 0:28:19wrote hundreds of plays, all true to his radical political ideals.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22He was very prolific.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26- Short, were they? - Short and punchy and to the point.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28They were devoted to a certain cause
0:28:28 > 0:28:32and they were to boost the morale of the people involved in that cause.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35- Did he only write plays for his cause?- Pretty much.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37Bruce had a very strong agenda
0:28:37 > 0:28:40and that is quite difficult for a writer,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43because it means everything is subsumed to that agenda
0:28:43 > 0:28:48and you don't think, "My characters are complex," because that is
0:28:48 > 0:28:52deflecting from the cause or from the aim you are aiming at.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55I wish I had seen some of these plays!
0:28:55 > 0:28:56It does seem to me
0:28:56 > 0:29:00that Bruce did stick to his guns over his ideology
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and his anti-capitalism, but although he was very intelligent,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07I don't think he was really clever in the way he went about it.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11I think he could have been much more influential if he had been slightly
0:29:11 > 0:29:17more conventional and still got his thoughts and ideas across to people.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20I do agree with what you're saying
0:29:20 > 0:29:24and I think it is wise sometimes to play the game,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27but I think there are certain people on the planet who can't
0:29:27 > 0:29:28and they do feel it is a betrayal.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31And I think with Bruce it was a betrayal.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I think if he did go that way, he would have felt
0:29:34 > 0:29:38he was betraying the cause, whatever it was he believed in.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Towards the end of the meeting, Hillary takes a moment to reflect on
0:29:42 > 0:29:45what she's learned about the cousin she once regarded
0:29:45 > 0:29:47as the black sheep of the family.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52As a family, we always felt that he never had a proper job,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56which it sounds like he didn't, and he'd never made enough money
0:29:56 > 0:30:02to live on. Maybe he didn't but he was very industrious.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05It sounds as if he wrote hundreds of plays.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10And he was very happy to help other people to get what they wanted,
0:30:10 > 0:30:15even if he didn't get what he wanted. So my opinion of him has changed,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18since learning all this.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Perhaps I should give him more credit than I did when he was alive.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Given Bruce's unconventional lifestyle,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32it remains a mystery how he came to leave a £100,000 legacy.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Thanks to the heir hunters, it will now be shared
0:30:35 > 0:30:39between his living relatives but for Hillary, it's not about the money.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43I wish he'd actually made a will and given it to whoever he really
0:30:43 > 0:30:47wanted to have it, because I don't think he intended it to come to me.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53For her, the journey to find out more about Bruce's hidden past
0:30:53 > 0:30:54is far from over.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58It's very interesting to talk to somebody who did know Bruce
0:30:58 > 0:31:02when he was an adult, which I didn't, and somebody who knew
0:31:02 > 0:31:05the sort of work that he was doing and I find that very interesting.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10What I would really like to know is what happened to him after Paul knew him,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14because there is quite a lot of years when he didn't know him
0:31:14 > 0:31:17and I didn't and I would like to know what happened in between.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31In Surrey, Joan Aldridge is getting to grips with the news that she
0:31:31 > 0:31:36is an heir to an estate of a woman called Diana Paine who died in 2010.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41I was amazed to hear that I might be in line to inherit some money
0:31:41 > 0:31:47because I didn't even know this Diana Paine, that she existed.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Diana was 91 years of age when she died in Tunbridge Wells.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55She had lived an exciting life,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59surrounded by people who loved her like her companion Ernest Armstrong.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03She was always game to do anything at all.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08After leaving school, Diana had worked as a shorthand typist
0:32:08 > 0:32:09but when war broke out,
0:32:09 > 0:32:14she volunteered to work as a driver for the National Fire Service.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19She was very proud. She had a status as an officer in the Fire Service.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24And she really enjoyed it very much. She enjoyed driving quite a lot.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30It was during the war that Diana met her second husband,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34Harry Paine, with whom she lived happily for 40 years.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Sadly, he died many years before her,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41but Diana wasn't lonely in her later life.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44I was very lucky in finding Diana.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48It was just that we enjoyed being with each other all the time.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52We didn't have to think, "What about a round-the-world cruise?"
0:32:52 > 0:32:54That didn't come into it at all.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57We didn't have to have very expensive things to enjoy life together.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Diana's father Alfred had two brothers.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08One of them, Hugh, had a daughter, Joan, who was born abroad
0:33:08 > 0:33:11and so hadn't shown up in the heir hunters' initial search.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Joan is Diana's first cousin
0:33:15 > 0:33:17and an heir to her £22,000 estate.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22But for her, the inheritance comes as a distant second to the chance
0:33:22 > 0:33:26to find out more about the father she was separated from us a child.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32I have very little recollection of him
0:33:32 > 0:33:37because when he visited several times, I was too little to remember
0:33:37 > 0:33:42that and I really have no feeling as to what sort of man he was at all.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46Joan's parents lived together in China until she was two years old.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50Frightened by the prospect of war in the Far East, her mother, Hazel,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54brought Joan back to England, to live with her own parents,
0:33:54 > 0:33:55Joan's grandparents.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00But Joan's father, Hugh, did not join his family.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Instead, he headed for India where he made his life.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08He did visit us, where I was living with my grandparents
0:34:08 > 0:34:12in Cobham, Surrey, and then he seemed to disappear.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14I suppose it was the war.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19It was only later when I was at school, and he contacted me
0:34:19 > 0:34:23and wanted to meet me. Watched me jumping a pony
0:34:23 > 0:34:28at a local gymkhana and took me out to dinner and things like that.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33And after that, I really lost contact with him on the whole, I think.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39The only thing he ever gave me once was a Parker 51 pen
0:34:39 > 0:34:44which didn't work in aeroplanes so he gave it to me.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Hugh died in 1961 on a rare visit to London.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52And it was only then that Joan began to find out about
0:34:52 > 0:34:56her father's fascinating life as a pioneer of aviation.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02I think I learnt more about my father after he died
0:35:02 > 0:35:07because in a number of the papers, and magazines, there were a lot
0:35:07 > 0:35:12of tributes to him from a lot of very important people in the flying world.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16I found it very interesting, and I really got to like him
0:35:16 > 0:35:18immensely, even though I didn't know him.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I felt then much more rapport with him
0:35:21 > 0:35:24because I thought, what a character he must have been.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27I really, really wished I had known him better.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Hugh Vaughan-Fowler began his career as a probationary Flying Officer
0:35:34 > 0:35:37in the Royal Naval Air Service.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41The year was 1917, and aviation was in its infancy.
0:35:41 > 0:35:42When he joined up,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46it was only 14 years after the Wright brothers had learned to fly.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50It was the new technology of the time.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53If you were a young man looking for something new, something
0:35:53 > 0:35:58adventurous, then that was the kind of thing that you might want to do.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04Clearly he did want to go flying and he proved to be very good at it.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10Hugh's exceptional talent and his love of flying helped him
0:36:10 > 0:36:15carve out a career in aviation which took him all over the world.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18But it was perhaps his inclusion in the Sempill Mission to Japan
0:36:18 > 0:36:22that was to become the defining moment of his career.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26The Sempill Mission arose in 1920, '21,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29when the Japanese embassy
0:36:29 > 0:36:32applied to the government to have
0:36:32 > 0:36:39an official mission to teach them how to have a Naval Air Service.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43With designs on becoming a great naval power,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47Japan asked Britain to send over a crack team of pilots to teach them
0:36:47 > 0:36:50how to fly fighter planes, build aircraft carriers
0:36:50 > 0:36:52and drop torpedoes from the air.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59They chose Britain because Britain was the most efficient
0:36:59 > 0:37:03and effective naval air power at the time.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07It was a controversial request.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09Although the Japanese had been Britain's allies
0:37:09 > 0:37:12in the First World War, some government officials
0:37:12 > 0:37:16were wary of helping them strengthen their military power.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21The Admiralty felt that anything which would provide
0:37:21 > 0:37:26a challenging sea power in the Pacific was not to be recommended.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31The Air Ministry was all for furthering British aviation
0:37:31 > 0:37:35interests so it looked on the idea more keenly.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37So they decided have a compromise.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Instead of an official mission, they would have a civilian mission.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46Hugh was one of 29 ex-RAF pilots hand picked to travel to Japan
0:37:46 > 0:37:51by the mission leader Colonel William Forbes-Sempill.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55It was a fantastic opportunity for a young aviator whose flying skills
0:37:55 > 0:37:57had not been in demand in Britain
0:37:57 > 0:37:59since the end of the First World War.
0:38:00 > 0:38:06Hugh Raymond Vaughan-Fowler was chosen for his expertise
0:38:06 > 0:38:08as a fighter pilot.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11He was teaching the Japanese first of all to fly
0:38:11 > 0:38:14and then he was teaching them fighter pilot tactics,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16like how to come out of the sun,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20how to approach an aircraft from a vulnerable point underneath
0:38:20 > 0:38:25and behind and he found that the Japanese were very bold about this.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29They weren't at all worried or afraid.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31He was very impressed by that.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37Although Joan has found out a little bit about her father's work,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41she knows next to nothing about his involvement with Sempill.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46Today, she is heading to Somerset to meet a Fleet Air Arm Museum director Graham Mottram,
0:38:46 > 0:38:51to find out about the role he played in this controversial mission.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54Here, for instance is the Admiral 504 training aircraft
0:38:54 > 0:38:58that they were flying and your father would have flown these
0:38:58 > 0:39:01teaching Japanese guys how to fly.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03That's interesting.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07It was important enough for the Prince Regent of Japan to visit
0:39:07 > 0:39:11and be introduced to this group who were helping
0:39:11 > 0:39:15right at the beginning of Japanese naval aviation.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19- My father got the Order of the Rising Sun or something?- Yes, he did.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22At the end of the mission, Hugh returned to Britain
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and re-enlisted in Britain in the RAF as an officer.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27He wrote about his time in Japan
0:39:27 > 0:39:31and his observations proved chillingly prophetic.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34What he did quite soon after he came back,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37which is quite remarkable for a man of 24, 25,
0:39:37 > 0:39:42was he wrote two papers about the threat on Japan
0:39:42 > 0:39:46to the Far East and the British Empire.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48Did he really?
0:39:48 > 0:39:53He didn't quite say it but if you read between the lines,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57your father could almost be called one of the prophets of Pearl Harbor.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Oh, really? That is amazing, isn't it?
0:40:00 > 0:40:04Because he actually analysed the Japanese economy,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08how it was outstripping its natural resources,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12how it was outstripping its gross national product,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16in building more warships than the US and the Royal Navy together.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20And said, basically, "Before very long,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23"Japan is going to have to go for territorial expansion,
0:40:23 > 0:40:28"otherwise it can't support itself and it is likely to
0:40:28 > 0:40:32"go for territorial expansion by military means."
0:40:32 > 0:40:37In 1931, seven years after Hugh had predicted it,
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Japan launched its first invasion of China.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45At the height of its power in 1942, the Japanese empire ruled
0:40:45 > 0:40:49over a land area of 2.85 million square miles -
0:40:49 > 0:40:52the size of Australia.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54He wasn't pulling any punches.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Here is a man in uniform, the Royal Air Force, saying, "If we are
0:40:58 > 0:41:04"not careful, it will swallow up the British Empire in the Far East."
0:41:04 > 0:41:08- Gosh, that is absolutely amazing, isn't it?- And he particularly
0:41:08 > 0:41:11points out Singapore, because Singapore was one of the greatest
0:41:11 > 0:41:13disasters of British military history.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20By the time the Second World War broke out, Hugh had moved to India
0:41:20 > 0:41:24and was appointed Chief Aerodrome Officer by the Indian government.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28He later founded a magazine called Indian Skyways,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and became a highly respected aviation journalist.
0:41:32 > 0:41:38I sense that he was a man who didn't curb his tongue too often.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41That is the feeling I got from what I've read.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44One of the things that comes out of his time in India is
0:41:44 > 0:41:48he was regularly falling out with the Director of Civil Aviation
0:41:48 > 0:41:52- and having his passport impounded. - Oh, right, that's a good one!
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Your father, in his journal,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57said something like the Hindustan aircraft company isn't
0:41:57 > 0:42:00building any aircraft, it is costing N-thousand rupees,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03and what is the Director of Aviation doing about it?
0:42:03 > 0:42:06What the Director of Aviation did about it was to send the police
0:42:06 > 0:42:09round and say, "Where is your passport, Mr Vaughan-Fowler?"
0:42:09 > 0:42:13- That is lovely, I like that! - So, yes, quite a character.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18For Joan, it has been an extremely rewarding trip.
0:42:19 > 0:42:20After the meeting,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22she takes a moment to reflect on what she has learned
0:42:22 > 0:42:27about the truly extraordinary father she never really knew.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32This report about the Japanese makes me really proud of him.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34I have even more respect for him
0:42:34 > 0:42:37than I had before and I thought he was a fairly exceptional person
0:42:37 > 0:42:40before, but now I think he is a very exceptional person.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43I'm so proud of the fact that he is my father.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48If you would like advice about building a family tree
0:42:48 > 0:42:49or making a will, go to...
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd