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00:01Do you want to play my favourite game?
00:04Each team has got to get five chairs.
00:07The chair's going to be that end.
00:09I'm in chaos, chaos.
00:12Bear Grylls is known worldwide as an adventurer.
00:16Man, if there's ever a place that's going to make you feel small, somewhere like this.
00:21And broadcaster.
00:22That's good, well at least I'm up out of the water.
00:24He spent three years as part of the SAS before becoming the youngest Briton to climb to the top of
00:30Mount Everest when he was 23.
00:33We're already in what they call the death zone, which doesn't exactly inspire what we're called.
00:38And for more than a decade, he's been the UK's chief scout.
00:41Great job. I think everyone a high five, don't you?
00:44As a kid growing up, it was quite unspectacular in everything really.
00:49You know, I mean, I wasn't academic, just pretty shy.
00:52You would have lost me in a crowd.
00:53You can't always be number one.
00:55But you can always give your all.
00:58Bear grew up in London and the Isle of Wight.
01:01The youngest of two children.
01:03With dad Michael, who passed away in 2001.
01:06And mum Sally.
01:08My dad was always really clear and my mum on the things that mattered in life.
01:12And we'd always talk about having a never give up spirit and going for things and finding out what you
01:17love.
01:18And I'm really grateful for that because it's been the key to so much.
01:22You know, follow the path less trodden.
01:25There are definitely certain professions that run through my family.
01:29One is soldier. One is definitely faith has been a strong part of my heritage.
01:34And family and faith have always been good rocks for me.
01:40Grandpa Neville, my mum's father, was just such a huge part of my life when I was growing up.
01:45Big smile, big frame, but always cuddles and hugs.
01:50But Grandpa Ted, my father's father, who's a different sort of grandfather.
01:54I mean, he was a brigadier, quite a stern regimented figure.
01:59But then after he died, I remember finding this trunk.
02:02And it was full of evidence that said, top secret.
02:06He never really spoke about the war, but that was the way he was.
02:09And I'd love to know, I'd love to know, what were you doing?
02:14My mum has always wanted me to do this.
02:17I think she's secretly hoping I find we're related to royalty somewhere.
02:21I think mum's going to be disappointed when she...
02:24Who do you think you are?
02:26Asha Nurse, related to the worst scoundrel in Victorian history,
02:31who is locked up for all sorts of misdemeanours.
02:35But hey, it's going to be an adventure.
02:47But I don't have to think of it as a dream as a dream,
02:48but yeah.
02:48But our floundrel can't be serious.
02:54What?
03:12I wish I could never fear at anything.
03:13I saw it as a dream being a dream.
03:14I'd love to think about the world.
03:16I'd love to think of something like that.
03:17I think it was more of a dream.
03:17so annoying you give me i can about 50 of the time i can light it because you do it
03:24just with
03:24the oh oh see that's just gone wrong already hasn't it i just gotta burn the match out
03:30bear and his wife shara have been married for over 20 years see look that's going
03:35absolutely brilliant she's helping him start his journey by exploring the family's extensive archive
03:43so this photo is you and your sister laura and your mother's father neville you were really close to
03:52neville weren't you yeah i mean you know i would say he was the greatest example of a man you'll
03:56you'll
03:57know i have such strong memories always of going into his bedroom in the morning and you'd hear him
04:03like doing his ex like two three two three two the knees bend you know you'd hear it neville had
04:11a lot
04:11of brothers and sisters i mean neville was one of seven that's all of them there have you seen that
04:17photo before no that's so sweet isn't it i've never seen them all together yeah which is neville there
04:26do you think that's neville yeah and then their father your great grandfather lionel
04:31lionel i don't know so much about apart from that he was patriarch of this amazing family of all
04:39big strong rich characters you know here he's a real he's a real sort of man isn't he i mean
04:44look
04:45such sort of big imposing figure yeah you know i know he's dressed up like hogwarts no but but he's
04:52really smiley he was headmaster of harrow a vicar as well you know i know one of his children died
04:58at
04:58school gosh but the truth is i i don't actually know a lot about him but that's a really lovely
05:03photo so then your father's father ted yeah should we open the truck oh gosh
05:13it's of course it makes that noise i mean this is what it's full of it's just endless sort of
05:19maps of germany germany why germ why well because the last year of the war and this is what we
05:25only
05:25found out after he died and i wish i'd spoken to him about it but we never did he had
05:29another job in
05:30the wall to establish this clandestine unit called t force which was charged with trying to find a lot
05:36of the high-ranking nazi scientists why basically the west wanted their technology and churchill
05:44established target force and we found out that grandpa ted commanded it oh wow i mean ted never spoke
05:51of any of this a how do you get the job and uh and how did you find these nazis
05:56how did you get them
05:58out you know so many questions what was he doing what was he doing before oh look here it's a
06:03secret
06:05what year is that 41 no maybe and then tanks so would this have been something to do with the
06:12scientists or something i don't know maybe look at this one here american trip introduction
06:18quayside being plainclothes washington air to kentucky fort knox gold ted girls 1943 1943
06:28just look at that i mean you know bandy little legs you've got his pipe there yep got the pipe
06:34socks pulled up there's a few photo albums actually i mean these are proper proper war photos aren't they
06:41captured german tanks blown up tanks there's a lot of i can't believe they photographed all of this oh my
06:48goodness is that what he was in charge of doing all of that during the war i don't know so
06:53actually
06:53there's more questions now you thought you knew quite a lot but now you know i wish i could have
06:58asked him these things yeah
07:04the grills family archive has inspired bear to find out more about his maternal great grandfather
07:10lionel ford but he wants to start with his paternal grandfather william edward harvey grills known as ted
07:18and makes sense of his trunk of top secret documents
07:25so bear has come to the royal military academy sandhurst where his grandfather ted trained as an army
07:34officer as a soldier i never came here i was never based here sandhurst is for officers only my military
07:40training was definitely a more unusual route to join the reserve sas unit as a trooper but i always wanted
07:47adventure i wanted to be outdoors in the thick of it and i love the maverick part of it that
07:54we never had
07:55to look smart on parade but my grandfather was very sort of formal and you know the idea of any
08:03of his
08:03offspring joining the military but not as an officer would have been outrageous i think
08:18i always feel very uncomfortable walking across a parade square looking looking scruffy
08:27to help him unravel the mystery of his grandfather ted's time in the army nice to meet you there is
08:33meeting military historian dr heon farquharson so obviously my grandfather william edward harvey
08:41grills grandpa ted to me it was only after he died that i found out he had commanded this clandestine
08:48unit t force but beyond that i know nothing i managed to pick up a copy of ted's service record
08:54here
08:54which obviously has a regiment he joined as well king's royal hussars so yeah cavalry regiment yeah on on
09:01horses it's still very much doing kind of very traditional roles there's a lot of time spent on
09:05horsemanship the kind of traditional officer type pursuits so what do you do equitation course small
09:11arms small arms rifle grenade revolver the one that really jumped out at me as i was looking through
09:15this record is this one here 12th advanced military college science advanced mechanical course why does
09:22that jump out at you because it's very much not something that a cavalry officer would necessarily have
09:27taken on so he's not had that much experience around the technology at the time vehicles lorries
09:32tanks anything like that he's almost put himself out there as a bit of a military maverick in a sense
09:36in his own regiment in that he's so focused on the technical side of things so i suppose it raises
09:41the
09:41question why is he going counter-culture and going doing random quite technical courses compared to all
09:46of his peers could be he's been recognized as being really competent technically equally there's always
09:52the potential that actually they're sort of getting a bit tired of hearing him talk about tanks and
09:55vehicles and engines and all the rest of it and sort of found a nice way to sort of get
09:59rid of him
09:59for a year or two um so he was either brilliant or trouble during the first world war britain had
10:09led
10:09the way in armored vehicle technology developing the world's first tank little willy but by the time
10:17bears grandfather ted had enrolled on his mechanical course there'd been little development or new
10:23investment in tanks ted was one of a very small number of military officers who had technical
10:29knowledge of armored vehicles we have another document here which might be of interest to you
10:37so raw military college magazine autumn 1938 so just before just before the war yep we welcome
10:44the mechanical engineering workshop staff captain wh grills so what he's come back to sandhurst yeah this
10:52is actually where ted's career gets very interesting um because he's taking this technical military
10:58course and then come back here to actually teach and train that next generation of officers for war
11:02so in the case of armored warfare what do they need to know in order to be able to work
11:06on these tanks
11:07drive these tanks but all of these guys nobody had figured out tank warfare yet so i guess you're
11:12you're making these tactics and planning for warfare the best you know how but they're making it up yeah very
11:18much
11:19a year after ted began teaching at sandhurst the second world war broke out and by may 1940 nazi germany
11:28had occupied huge swathes of mainland europe britain's armored vehicles were put to the test in their first
11:36major engagement of the war the battle of france but within a month overwhelmed by superior german forces
11:45forces the british had to abandon their positions in a hurried retreat from dunkirk in terms of how
11:53british tanks fare in the battle of france you've got 704 tanks that get sent out with the various units
11:58of those 691 get destroyed in the course of a month with the german thrust through france and belgium oh
12:03wow that's that's a rout um these are all light tanks which if they meet anything other than light
12:09tanks are in real trouble just through thinness of armor and lack of weapons as well so the tanks are
12:13subpar
12:14yeah so ted will be hearing all of this and hearing about how bad everything is and still having to
12:18go
12:18through that process of teaching young officers how to work their tanks and what they're going to be
12:22expecting when they join i mean that's a nightmare job for for grandpa ted trying to teach young guys
12:27it's almost like they're they're on a suicide mission yeah
12:36it's funny because i always think of grandpa ted as this like you know older brigadier i always thought
12:42it's very conventional but i quite like the fact that he was a bit of a military maverick
12:47he was part of this regiment that was as traditional as you can get i mean his peers
12:51would have definitely looked down their nose a little bit at it you know he was probably the geeky
12:56one but his tang technology what i've learned is is key otherwise the army's in big trouble the allies
13:03are in big trouble uh quite what part grandpa ted had in that i don't know and that's really what
13:10i want
13:10to find out a bit now where did that lead him to find the answer bear is heading to bovington
13:19camp in
13:20dorset home to the tank museum he's meeting curator david willie good morning welcome to the tank museum
13:27thanks so much for your time so grateful to see if he can shed any light on grandpa ted's top
13:33secret
13:36documents i've looked in this before but it didn't really mean a lot to be honest what have you got
13:40in there well i think it was just like maps and stuff so what we're looking at there it looks
13:46to me
13:46like an itinerary american trip so in 1941 why was he going to america if we have a look on
13:53here visit to
13:54ford so in detroit they are putting up factories on behalf of the british government to make us war
14:01equipment tanks etc yeah and that's what ted's trying to see how that's going on and can i influence
14:08it i mean he's relatively young guy said on a massive shopping spree essentially to the states
14:13and we've got another document here that you might like to have a look at
14:18informal conference by major weh grills british army july 1941 he's talking to the american first
14:26armored division the americans when did they come into the war so they're not actually officially
14:30until the attack on pearl harbor so that's december of 41 so six months after he's yeah but pretty
14:36soon the americans ask in france it seems to be the men held their heads out of the tanks as
14:42they
14:42went into action is that true grandpa ted goes it should be discouraged you know you always see
14:47everyone with the heads out don't you the americans haven't had this experience yet so they're sucking
14:52information out from british officers such as ted who have actually been there seen it you know the
14:59tanks come of age now in world war ii yeah and he's in the middle of that bit so what
15:03he knows is is
15:04vital you know it's it's key stuff isn't it this is a classic album of loads of his stuff and
15:11all the
15:11tanks in it always blown up off the tracks upside down so after america he's out there in the field
15:18looking at the evidence of what's caused this if something hasn't worked or what does work how can
15:25we make it better i mean i just assumed he was part of a tank force moving through europe i
15:30didn't know
15:30what he was ever doing he's got this technical knowledge it sort of feels like he's found a real
15:36niche we've got a document here you might look at which again his name appears in so he's back in
15:43england the above branch has now formed 21 army group technical officers deputy director colonel
15:50we h grills in charge so he's had a promotion so he's part of the 21st army group that is
15:58going to
15:58reinvade europe this branch is concerned with the technical aspect of all equipment so basically
16:05they're going again and they don't want to get it wrong this time they're going to get it right
16:08absolutely and your grandfather he's given the technical advice to headquarters staff there
16:14and that energy and effort that goes into this as you can imagine before the d-day landings
16:20you know is amazingly complex you need the best brains to do that and we can have a look at
16:27one
16:27of the vehicles that was actually used on the d-day landings that he's involved in
16:31so that is the bog standard american sherman tank and one of the issues he's there looking at
16:38is mines mines become a major major problem yeah so we adapt it and these booms on the side
16:47this spins causing all those chains to beat the ground blowing up the mines ahead of the vehicle
16:53clearing a path for the rest of the army to follow on yeah i mean this would be a formidable
16:58thing when
16:58this is flailing like that so the technical elements with your grandfather and that planning
17:04he's part of is just enormous you know they still talk about the d-day landings as probably the biggest
17:11human undertaking of all time even bigger than the space race and of course the great news is it works
17:16i like the pioneering side of it is that you've got to innovate and they're having to do it so
17:21fast on
17:22the fly it's amazing that tiny little changes can make a huge difference well done grandpa ted good job
17:31but there's something extra if you want to have a look at that one as well
17:35so honor of reward obe wow and i like this it says previous awards nil
17:43so not everyone gets a gong in the you've got to start somewhere wow
17:48colonel grills has acted as my technical advisor in afv since january 44. i found him a most
17:54painstaking and knowledgeable officer and has a happy knack of getting along with most people
17:59that's nice to hear it is largely through his energy and drive the technical defects are remedied as
18:06quickly as they are yeah that's a really lovely lovely write-up isn't it you can be as technical as
18:13you
18:13like you've got to take you've got to take people with you wartime or peacetime
18:20the fact that grandpa ted got sent on a trip to america to be kind of the british face of
18:26explaining
18:26what's happening in europe and yeah how can they design tanks better meant he had to be a good
18:32communicator and now i think back actually for many years people often come up to me they say oh we
18:38knew your grandpa ted and he was so lovely and it never quite sort of corresponded to as a young
18:46kid when i knew him he was always quite scary much more formal stern and he was those things to
18:53me as
18:53a kid when he was older but he was so much more and that's nice to begin to discover
19:05having found out that his grandpa ted's technical knowledge helped secure victory for the allied
19:10forces during world war ii bear now wants to know more about his work after the war with the top
19:16secret
19:17unit t force so he's come to the imperial war museum in london to meet curator and historian dr peter
19:26johnston
19:29there's some legendary photos in this
19:33there's my grandfather just behind i'd been told about t force but not a huge amount i'd really love
19:39some help trying to shed some light on actually what grandpa ted's involvement with t force was
19:44absolutely and actually if you look at head service record here what you can actually see
19:47so this is after the war so beginning of 47 appointment as commander hq oh yeah t force
19:54so what is commanding t force what does that actually mean what was he doing so what t force was
20:00it was
20:00designed to harness harvest and exploit german technology industrial capability but also the
20:06people who are behind it like scientists or exactly that the germans are technologically advanced
20:12they have brilliant scientists industrialists uh who've made great leaps forward sometimes through
20:18dark forms of experimentation to to advance that but the british want that technology they want
20:23that understanding
20:26set up by the british and american forces t force was tasked with securing nazi germany's military secrets
20:33and advanced scientific technology for allied use
20:37and advanced scientific technology for all of us as commander of this elite unit bear's grandpa ted was
20:42in charge of identifying hundreds of german engineers scientists and businessmen and sending many
20:49to britain for interrogation the knowledge secured by t force and the allies would prove invaluable over the
20:56next few decades enabling america especially to take on the soviet union in endeavors like the space race
21:05but it was a difficult mission and actually we've got a document here that gives a bit of an idea
21:11into what ted and the soldiers of t force were up to usually an nco arrives without notice at the
21:17house
21:18or office of the german and warns him that he will be required he does not give him any details
21:23of the
21:24reason nor does he present his own credentials sometime later the german is seized often in the middle of
21:30the night and removed under guard this procedure savors very much of the gestapo methods are they saying
21:38that some of the t-forcings is quite heavy-handed and what's going on here essentially that's right so
21:44this was a letter to ted okay so this was to him yeah and it's a letter of complaint why
21:50why are you now
21:51doing similar methods to the gestapo turning up in the middle of the night grabbing them taking them
21:56from their families taking them to this place for interrogation i mean it's it's definitely on the
22:01edge isn't it ted's got to grapple with that we really have to understand the the pressures and the
22:08need to respond yeah your grandpa has been given an order he's been given a mission he's been told he's
22:12got to do it he's going to go and do it this is the nature of warfare this is the
22:16reply that is sent
22:18back and you can see how he expresses himself it's amazing seeing him writing back to these sort of
22:23thing frequently the information given to t force is so scanty that it takes several weeks to locate
22:30a german to comply with the proposal that the head of a branch should be consulted before an approach
22:36is made it is considered that this delay would not be acceptable in other words if you hold us up
22:43we can't do our job let us do it trust us there's definitely another really complex moral component
22:49to this because some of the people responsible for achieving german industrial success are high
22:56profile nazis yeah so a lot of those high profile nazis really should have stood trial but instead
23:02grandpa ted and t force are actually trying to get them out and use them exactly that it's so interesting
23:07because he never spoke of any of this you know i guess he was bound by the official secrets act
23:12but
23:12you'd think as an old guy in his 90s it'd be such an interesting question to ask how did you
23:17wrestle
23:17with that moral quandary when you know the guy here is a bad guy he's done bad stuff but you
23:23need
23:24this his brain you need his skills his technologies and i think for for ted and for t force this
23:30is about
23:31making sure that britain is in the best position moving forward wow
23:44i think back to grandpa ted and there's no doubt he was duty first he was on the front line
23:51of this
23:51clandestine mission to hold the soviets off and to get these technologies and these
23:56you know these people and all of this and scientists out and you know he must have seen
24:03as something worth fighting for but there's always a price post-war where everyone else
24:08was going home and getting back to their families trying to restore life he was super focused on his
24:14duty never really saw grandpa ted hug my dad or tell him he loved him and i think that's why
24:20my dad
24:20did things so differently he was the opposite he was so cozy always telling he loved us
24:26but maybe that was the price that grandpa ted paid but it's definitely over my life i've really tried
24:34to fight to be there for the family when they're young because that only happens once i want to be
24:42there when the boys are growing up and and i feel i have been and i'm proud of that but
24:47we're not at war
24:48and i think that was the sacrifice that he made for the war
24:57now he's solved the secrets of grandpa ted's trunk bear wants to investigate his mother's side of the
25:04family
25:06my grandpa on my mum's side grandpa neville was a really cozy such a character like bear hug of a
25:14man
25:15and loved him so much
25:19bear's maternal grandfather neville ford was one of seven children five boys and two girls
25:27bear wants to find out more about neville's father his great-grandfather lionel ford
25:35is
25:35lana was head of this amazing like family quite austere looking with a mix of dog collar and headmaster
25:42robes both of which are quite formidable things well what i know is they experienced a lot of loss you
25:50know out of those seven brothers and sisters one of the boys died but it'd be really interesting to find
25:56out about him the father lionel ford
26:06bear has come to harrow school where his great-grandfather lionel ford was headmaster
26:13founded in 1572 it's one of britain's oldest public schools
26:21there is meeting historian professor jane hamlet lovely to meet you too we're just heading over in
26:27this direction
26:32gosh this is quite a scary room isn't it yeah yeah normally if i was ever in a room like
26:38this i was in
26:39trouble so it's nice to meet you jane yeah lionel i mean headmaster but that's all i kind of know
26:45about him well we've managed to find quite a few things um about his time here at harrow and the
26:52first thing we've found is this image from a newspaper when he first started at the school
26:59so june the 10th 1910 daily mirror to some boys headmasters are a stern face always armed with sticks
27:06and canes the reality is however quite different and it'd be difficult to find a more genial and kindly
27:12soul than the reverend lionel ford harrow's new head this is rather sweet isn't it it's done at his
27:18side and holding his daughter there and big smile on his face it's really interesting that he's chosen
27:23to include this photograph of him as a family man in a national newspaper because it's not just a
27:31family photograph this is kind of promoting his image as a new headmaster to the nation of not being
27:37too formal and stern but actually being a family guy absolutely so he's very much saying i'm going
27:42to bring that role into the school i can guarantee there would have been a few school governors sat
27:46around their london clubs but might have spotted the daily mirror gun really the reverend lion really
27:52it's a very inappropriate photo with your children yes you can imagine that he did ruffle a few feathers
27:59actually when he came to harrow so tell me about his work here um so one of the really good
28:05things
28:05about your great grandfather is we have an awful lot of evidence um about his life um including this
28:13oh lionel ford look there's a whole book on him that's amazing the book tells us about his time at
28:21harrow
28:21and the impression he created when he first arrived here there was an unmistakable and very wonderful
28:28atmosphere in the presence of mr and mrs ford atmosphere of friendliness and goodwill the warmed
28:35one's heart at that point um the school itself weren't doing awfully well financially they weren't
28:42recruiting very well and they actually brought him in um to try and turn things around a bit really
28:47we've got a few things that tell us a bit about this harrow school new curriculum september 1912
28:54first line the existing timetable harrow has been in force untouched since 1888 but after the lapse of
29:03nearly a quarter of a century it was clearly in need of revision and in my opinion of total reconstruction
29:09yeah so this is definitely quite punchy saying this isn't working yeah divinity has an extra
29:16period generally assigned to it every week the extra period is intended to give opportunity for
29:20teaching of a more varied character more teaching at school and less preparation of work at a school
29:27i love this bit though a regular system of swedish physical drill yes i know the exercises because i
29:33grew up watching neville do them i find it so funny that these exact things that my grandpa used to
29:40do
29:40age 80 through to his last day of his life and they never knew where they came from marching and
29:46leaping exercise i mean it's hilarious look at these pictures look there you go knees bend i mean
29:52literally this is what okay so you could demonstrate i mean my bedroom would be here you know neville's
29:57room was next door all i'd hear two three reach out knees bend up that's what would hit every morning
30:11go on for about 10 minutes but was this an unusual thing to do they were very popular in girls
30:18schools
30:18so it perhaps wasn't you know necessarily something you would naturally introduce at a boys public school
30:24yeah and also you can imagine the the boys going home to their parents who are the ones same ones
30:29sitting in those london smart clubs going the headmaster's now got us all doing girls stretching
30:35exercises every morning yeah and everyone being up in harm yes no absolutely so do people embrace
30:41this sort of change because it's quite it seems quite sort of radical yeah in many ways it's kind
30:46he's kind of a modernizer and actually your great great grandfather has an influence beyond the
30:51school as well so i think this document tells us a bit about that influence
30:59manners maketh man by reverend lionel ford tale about the scout law how interesting he's writing
31:06about the scouts so this is from a speech that he gave to 700 scouts in 1913 so yes until
31:15we have
31:16swept away contempt altogether we can never truly be courteous gosh interesting isn't it but i think
31:23how easy it is to be unintentionally cruel so easy that unless we go out of our way and take
31:29steps to
31:29be intentionally kind we most of us will often be unintentionally cruel i like that it's not just about
31:35kindness you know you've you're going to live you've got to be proactively kind you know he was living in
31:42quite a sort of class-based society and there was you know there would have been a strong sense of
31:47social hierarchy at the time but he's saying well no actually you need to be equally kind equally
31:53courteous to everyone you meet and treat them in the same way yeah he's right he's right so scouting
32:01was founded like 1908 you know this is only a few years later when they're still setting the values i
32:06suppose for for that but amazing to think that lionel had any any influence on that and and so lovely
32:15for me to see because those are timeless values whether you're trying to run a school or start a
32:22worldwide force for good of young people in scouting you know being courteous of being kind and and
32:28respectful i had no idea of that i mean that's amazing really you hear all these amazing things
32:41about you know lana ford and innovating and and slight sort of maverick take over the school and
32:47throwing all these new things in but ultimately it seems what really matters to him was actually family
32:54i mean i love this bit family was one of his favorite adjectives a family jaunt a family joke
33:01a family gathering etc though he never refused to let us go on visits during the holidays we all have
33:07letters begging us not to stay away long but i also know that he had a family tragedy in that
33:14one of his
33:15five sons died as a teenager and that will have i mean it must have taken a horrendous toll
33:28to find out more about the death of one of his great uncles bear's next stop is the headmaster's house
33:36his great-grandparents lionel and mary lived here with their children
33:40including bear's grandfather neville from 1910 to 1925
33:49historian dr laura king has been researching the family's time here so i know that lana my great
33:55grandfather he lost one of his sons when richard the son was a teenager i don't know much more about
34:02it what the circumstances were the effect it must have had on the family whilst he's trying to do
34:07this crazy job running their school this memoir was written by your great-grandfather lionel about
34:14richard and about his life wow it's amazing a father writing a whole book on his on a whole
34:21book richard wow and it wouldn't have been totally uncommon at the time it was a a known and an
34:27accepted
34:27way to experience grief to work through those emotions and to mark his life on sunday august 10th
34:35we all went to holy communion together how little we conceived it was to be our last time with him
34:42on the way home he complained a little of feeling cold and on reaching the house he rather staggered
34:49upstairs neville is my grandpa with whom he shared a room i noticed that his breathing was rather labored
34:56and summoned his mother who found his temperature to be 102 and on satay dr collier from oxford
35:03pronounced him very seriously ill and praying that the boy oh my god i'm gone praying that the boy might
35:10be given strength to fight the evil germ and make a safe recovery but the disease proved to be an
35:16inflammation of the marrow of the bone and signs of septic pneumonia appeared 36 hours later but i
35:22mean how do you get that i mean that happened so fast he was super sporty i mean i remember
35:27neville even
35:28to his dying day my grandpa would always say out of all of the five boys he would always say
35:32richard
35:33was the best of us he was the cleverest he was the sportiest he was the nicest what happened he
35:39had an
35:40infection of the bone in his leg and that turned to septic pneumonia sepsis this unfortunately is one
35:47of those instances of someone who now would wouldn't die because this was before antibiotics yeah
35:5710 a.m the doctors noticed great change for the worse he was unconscious heart began to fail
36:04we stood and prayed over him but he was past recognizing us dear oh god
36:17it's so crazy because i didn't i don't know him you know
36:24yeah
36:26there was just time to bring his grandparents and uncle ted with arthur and neville to his bedside
36:37and when the labored breathing began to quiet down into peacefulness and he passed into the great
36:43beyond while we all prayed around him and committed him to god oh dear
36:52yeah
36:55life's so cruel sometimes isn't it losing a child is something no parent ever gets over
37:02the love of a father to his boys you know we've got three boys you you you can't where do
37:10you go
37:10with sort of grief like that and you can see that in the writing there i mean you know i'm
37:17a wreck
37:17reading at a hundred years i mean you can't imagine what what the family went through
37:32i think what's been interesting for me about lionel and my grandparents was definitely notice certain
37:39character traits in them that i love and and sort of recognize in in our boys and in myself as
37:48well
37:48uh there was definitely a sense of duty and a determination to forge their own path
37:56so i think what for me what would be interesting now is to go back much further back and see
38:00if any
38:01of those character traits are shining bright when you start dialing the clock back a bit who knows
38:10bear is meeting genealogist rachel king who's been looking further into his mother's family line
38:17oh hello hey nice to meet you i'm bear hi i'm rachel thank you so much yeah
38:23i mean it's funny with my mum because of course all she wants is to find out that we're related
38:27to
38:27the king of england at some point for me that interest is a little less although i do love the
38:32king of england nice save yes but i'm kind of interested in the in the quirkier characters i think
38:40okay the path less trodden individuals wherever that path might be you know this is your family tree
38:47yeah we've got you at the bottom um i think you've been learning about lionel yeah this is lionel's wife
38:53your great grandmother mary catherine yeah talbot her surname her father edward stuart talbot your
39:01great great great grandfather my irish christened edward right so that's that's that's lasted through
39:07the through the lines yeah um there's something that you might spot as we go back so we have edward
39:14stuart talbot yeah jane stuart john stuart third earl of butte does stuart meanin think to you
39:21go back to school what with stuarts and yeah tudors and yeah it's the same family you've got d in
39:29history
39:30it's all right that's why we're here so this is my six times great grandfather i mean look at that
39:35outfit it's a bit like black adder i mean my mum would be delighted at this look third earl of
39:40butte
39:41second earl of butte i think you found your aristocrats wow i didn't know that mum's going
39:45to be over the moon yep so if we keep going back so his dad another steward yeah and you
39:53can see that he
39:54marries a campbell yeah so the stewarts and the campbells major major scottish clans yeah so that's
40:03quite a union isn't it yeah i love everything scottish right you know i mean shara my wife and me
40:10met in
40:10scotland right and i'm always i always wear a kilt at home i mean people don't know this and shara
40:16bans
40:16me from wearing it out and about because she says it looks ridiculous but i love wearing a kilt around
40:22home it's like everything feels free too much information but okay i always wore the dogs in
40:29in my kilts and shara's always going but you've got no scottish ancestry at all well you have
40:34it's right there i'm literally going to be waving this at her yeah yeah i'm wearing the kilt wear the
40:41kilt with pride so if we stick with the campbell side if we keep going back right to the top
40:49archibald campbell the first marquis of argyle so this is your tenth oh wow look at the great
40:56grandfather that is that is quite a mullet as well look at that low here the genius of the great
41:03argyle
41:03wow beheaded may the 27th 1661. yeah he's a very very interesting man
41:14huh i wonder who he upset and what he did sounds like a road trip to argyle saddle up team
41:26by following his maternal grandmother's line back through the centuries
41:30bear has discovered a connection to the powerful stewart and campbell clans of scotland now he wants
41:36to find out how his 10 times great grandfather archibald campbell marquis of argyle lost his head
41:45so he's come to the west coast of scotland
41:51finding out that i do have connection and ancestors strong ancestors all the way back through scottish
41:58lineage for me is exciting my heart definitely missed a beat when i heard that because to be honest
42:03it's something i've always wanted i've always related to uh to the wild parts of scotland
42:12in verery castle has been the seat of the campbell clan since 1746. yeah boy look at that
42:19quite a castle it's like being home
42:26bear is meeting its current resident the 13th duke of argyle
42:30hello bear welcome to the barrow castle yeah thank you yeah come on come on in welcome to a bit
42:36of your
42:37family heritage i don't think i've ever been to a castle like this it's incredible look at that
42:44this is the highest freestanding ceiling in scotland it's 21 meters high and we have one of the greatest
42:50collections of arms and armory on display in scotland i mean there is some serious weaponry here
42:56over 1800 pieces uh on display oh wow last used at the battle of culloden which was the last pitch
43:02battle in scotland um so i believe that your mother is my ninth cousin yeah so so really this is
43:08this is
43:09also my ancestral home well exactly it's you know it is it is it is it is the center of
43:14the campbell family
43:15yeah and you know we're open to visitors during the summer and you come and pay my ticket i think
43:22it wasn't quite what i was after you know what about like a little acre up in the mountains where
43:27i could maybe build a bothy exactly you can have plenty of plenty of plenty of bosses i feel very
43:31proud look you got the you've got the kilt as well yeah so this is campbell tartan and uh you're
43:36probably entitled to wear a campbell tartan kilt is that right oh good you can go you can go shopping
43:41and
43:41get some of this i love it okay so archibald the marquis of of argyle would be my great grandfather
43:48ten times the great marquis yes and uh i can take you through and introduce you
43:55so this was him he does look he looks quite stern doesn't he he's quite quite quite austere but you
44:01know he was the great marquis because of his very very strong beliefs he stood up for everything
44:05he believed in yeah so archibald marquis of argyle beheaded beheaded in edinburgh by the maiden the
44:13scottish maiden what was it what a lady uh no so they're not a lady execution so the guillotine would
44:20come down on the back of your head yeah the scottish maiden they made you look up and the guillotine
44:25came
44:26down as you watched it yeah wow that's probably less fun isn't it yeah are you gonna flinch at that
44:36to find out how his ancestor came to such a gruesome end hi bear i'm claire thank you so much
44:41thank you
44:42bear is meeting historian dr claire jackson so yes i've seen the portrait uh ten times great
44:49grandfather came to a bad end but i still don't know why so marcus argyle he's born at a really
44:56sort of pivotal time in scotland's history so scotland's got a scottish-born king charles
45:01first who's in london and a lot of scots are feeling that the way in which charles i is taking
45:06the church of scotland or seems to be wanting to take it begins to look and sound like catholicism
45:13there's a new prayer book there's a lot of ceremonial and all of this seems to be in danger
45:18of corrupting what scots feel is their true protestant faith they probably don't like an english
45:23king saying change and here's more english in your faith and the marcus of guard is someone to whom
45:30faith is really important and it all culminates in 1638 with the creation of this document and this
45:36is really where argyle comes to prominence the confession of faith subscribed at first by the
45:42king i've got a transcription if it helps we're going to see we'll okay so what is this the national
45:47covenant confession of faith so we all and every one of us underwritten protest that after long and
45:54due examination of our own consciences in matter of true and false religion we're now thoroughly
46:00resolved in the truth by the spirit and word of god so would the marquis have written this he didn't
46:07write it but he signed it and he comes to be associated with it this is an iconic document in
46:12scottish history so what's it what's it really saying it's a protest and everyone who signs it says
46:17we subscribe to honor the true faith so nobles like argyle put their name to it but so does
46:23everyone in a parish so it really is a national covenant in the king's eyes it's treason it's sort
46:29of insurrection you know who are my people to sort of point this out to me they're bonding against me
46:34and people become either covenanters or royalists and king charles begins to lose authority and the
46:40british isles descends into civil war
46:44the covenanters vowed to uphold their true protestant faith resisting changes being introduced
46:50to the church of scotland by king charles i and despite this being seen as an act of treason
46:56bear's ten times great grandfather the marquis of argyle became the movement's leader
47:0222 years later the new king charles ii saw the marquis still firm in his religious beliefs
47:10as a threat to his authority so sentenced him to death
47:16speech of the marquis upon the scaffold look at this his last words immediately before he laid his
47:21head upon the block i know what many will expect that i shall speak against the hardness of the
47:26sentence pronounced against me but i will say nothing to it let the will of the lord be done
47:31i pray the lord to preserve our present king his majesty wow that's those are brave brave words of
47:38non-condemnation against a tough judgment of death it's a very sort of dignified moment as well i mean
47:45you've got to admire his faith there i think i think most most of us mere mortars will be struggling
47:50a
47:50bit then and he's commended i mean the general impression is that this is somebody who goes to his death
47:55like a true christian the way he wrote that he was faithful to his king as well he was asking
47:59for
47:59god's blessing on the king to the end it feels feels hard i think whether you were charles the
48:06first or whether you were charles the second i'm not sure you could rely on the marquis to give you
48:10that kind of unquestioning loyalty you expect because for the marquis it's whether or not they will
48:16promote the covenant and all of them to some extent fall short so do you think in a way the
48:21new king
48:21goes if there's doubt there's no doubt i think the new king probably feels that if one noble gets
48:29sacrificed and it costs him his life yeah i've got one more document there um oh look i've seen that
48:38picture before instruction to a son by archibald late marquis of argyle written in the time of his
48:47confinement wow look written to his son contents chapter one on religion chapter two of marriage
48:54of friendship of study and exercise this is like a self-help book isn't it this is drawing on an
49:01extraordinary life from someone who's been at the center of politics giving what they consider to be
49:06good advice yeah so look chapter on travel one journey will show a man more than 20 descriptions
49:13relations or maps what a desolate life do tortoises live who cannot be rid of their shells basically
49:21saying travel it will broad broadens your mind it's quite adventurous isn't it i mean there's a
49:26that's a there's a lot in here isn't there it's very influential in shaping how the marquis
49:30is remembered as well as being quite personal it's quite a book but also it sort of speaks of
49:38living an adventurous life being loyal and for me it's it's actually strange seeing those words
49:44instructions to a son i mean that definitely brings a little tingle down my neck because
49:50i wrote a book to our three boys literally called to my sons you know i wrote it you know
49:56not many
49:57years ago you know mine's definitely a more low brow version but the sentiment is the same
50:02300 for me it's weird yeah 350 years ago in terms of sort of family and dynasty i think
50:09that passage is quite interesting you see that to be descended of great personages is no exemption
50:15from the strokes of fortune in other words just because you're born into whatever doesn't mean
50:20it's all going to work out no i guess i mean it for me it's interesting to see who these
50:25great
50:25personages are further back a good place to start would be the agar mausoleum at kilman
50:31where the marcus was buried along with some of his ancestors
50:41bear's campbell clan ancestors have been buried on the site of kilman parish church
50:46since the 14th century to find out who these great personages were bears meeting historian fiona
50:54watson oh wow the rain stopped for about a second lovely to meet you i'm fiona hi shall we go
51:01around this
51:06week yeah so here we are wow look at this it's amazing isn't it so these are all dukes buried
51:17in
51:17here that's correct yes so where's our guy well where's archibald don't be looking for something too
51:27grand archibald marcus of argyle beheaded 1661 so they put him on the floor this is it he also
51:34talked about these great personages in his family and that bit i don't know what he was
51:41really referring to well if you turn around you might get a bit of a clue there because we've got
51:47some much earlier figures oh gosh can you see campbell at the end yeah camp yeah and it's if you
51:53go
51:53about three words it's duncan duncan dominus yeah so what's that the lord duncan of camp camp he's the
52:00first uh lord camp and 1455 so that's 200 years earlier but there are two of them is that is
52:07is that
52:07his wife behind exactly so this is marjorie she's the daughter of the duke of albany and this is your
52:16great grandmother great grandmother yeah so tell me about marjorie we haven't got any documents to
52:21show you but there is more in this room that will tell you about marjorie so there we are
52:28this chapel standing on an ancient consecrated ground was part of the church endowed by duncan
52:33lord campbell of loci who lies here with his wife marjorie daughter of the duke of albany and
52:40granddaughter of king robert so there you are i haven't heard of a king king robert my history
52:45that's okay well this king robert is the first stewart king but he actually has an even more
52:52impressive grandfather who's also called robert robert the bruce yes which means that robert the bruce
53:00is your 21 times great great great grandfather he was a cool guy robert he was a very cool guy
53:07i mean
53:08i'm not sure i would always like to have met him but but he was an amazing military leader robert
53:13bruce was always like the warrior king wasn't he he was a total warrior king i mean to be honest
53:17he
53:17didn't stand out that way for the first year or so he was rubbish i mean it was like everything
53:22you
53:22shouldn't do if you want to to reconquer your kingdom and he was forced west out to this part
53:27of scotland and disappeared over the winter of 136 to 7 and he came back revolutionized so i wonder what
53:35happened during those winter what was he learning he learned to use the terrain he would fight in
53:41the winter he understood how to gather men to him get men to love him get men to become hardened
53:46with
53:47him yeah it's braveheart stuff totally but he was was for me always watching braveheart i never wanted
53:53to be part of like the english conquest i always loved the guys who came from the hills and gathered
54:00all of
54:00their clan buddies and rose up and lifted the kilts absolutely yes and fought do you know it's so
54:08interesting it's like it's like the it's like the original special forces yes but that was way later
54:14absolutely epic in these mountains could you imagine could you imagine
54:24there's 21 times great-grandfather robert the bruce emerged from hiding in 1307 with a new style of warfare
54:33eventually leading his army to a major victory over the english at the battle of bannockburn
54:39making the scots the pre-eminent military power in britain i've actually got something that tells you
54:47about the character of robert the bruce written yeah about 50 years after after he was around the king
54:51set his watches at night and gave orders that they could eat he bade them be comforted and make merry
54:57as best they could r and r very important for being discouraged as he said then is the worst thing
55:03possible for through great discouragement men often fall into despair and when a man is in despair
55:09he's utterly beaten you can read about many men who are far worse place than we are now
55:15and then our lord gave them such grace that they fully achieved their aims it's the ultimate never
55:20give up speech really it really is yeah my memory of robert the bruce was something there was this
55:26story of the spider and in a cave that's right because he's in this low period he's in the blackest
55:33despair sees the spider she she her making her web the wind blows it away she comes back she just
55:39never
55:39gives up yeah yeah even when the web gets destroyed the spider keeps going absolutely you can sort of
55:45imagine him in that cave in the winter going never give up never give up yeah yeah even if the
55:50weather's
55:50like this yeah amazing it's been a really moving journey for me much more than i thought
56:06my mom always kind of hoped we'd trace it back to some very regal formal king
56:13we got to a king or not but it was a king that lived in the mountains and wore a
56:18kilt
56:19and uh definitely was kind of rough with it and i like that you know he was robert the bruce
56:24was a
56:25wild one but for me it was nice to see that there are traits that adventure spirit was always there
56:31so it's kind of reassuring to know that i'm not alone in that you know a lot of my ancestors
56:37went
56:37through that journey as well and and with the benefit of hindsight you can look at their lives
56:42and go actually it was worth pushing through and taking that quirky and more different route you know
56:48you look at my grandpa ted what he was doing was amazing and i wish i'd known him as a
56:53young guy and
56:54same with my great grandpa lano and then you go back look at the marquis old archibald i mean wow
57:01that a journey imagine if you write this if you commit your faith on paper you're going to probably
57:06pay for it with your life so family really matters and faith is important and having a resilience in life
57:14but also connection to the wild places i hope that will always be part of my family going forward
57:20uh because the the wild has given me so much and i never take that for granted
57:31so
57:39so
57:41so
57:41so
57:58Transcription by CastingWords